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WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 



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WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

A VIRGINIAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL: 
HIS LIFE, TIMES AND CONTEMPORARIES 

(1787-1858) 



By 

ARMISTEAD C. GORDON 

Author of "Robin Aroon," "The Ivory Gate," etc. 




New York and Washington 

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1909 






Copyright, 1909, by 
The Neale Publishing Company 



^Gi.A2nr:? •~;i 



"Let the banks facilitate the exchanges of commerce and further 
the interests of trade; but let them, I pray you, have nothing to do 
with the Government." — Gordon's Speech on proposing the Inde- 
pendent Treasury in 1835. 



K^ 



To 

MASON GORDON, 

HIMSELF "A Virginian of the Old School," 
THIS Biography of his Father is inscribed 

WITH GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION. 



CONTENTS 

Introduction, 13 

Chapter I, 18 

Ancestry. 

Chapter II, 34 

Parents. 

Chapter III, 48 

Early Life. 

Chapter IV, 64 

"The Red Hills of Piedmont." 

Chapter V, 76 

In the War of 18 12. 

Chapter VI, 89 

In the General Assembly — The University 
of Virginia. 

Chapter VII, 107 

In the General Assembly — Some of Its 
Members — The Office of Governor. 

Chapter VIII, 122 

In the General Assembly — Politics and 
Politicians — William B. Giles. 

Chapter IX, 140 

In the General Assembly — Lafayette's 
Visit — Jefferson's Lottery. 

Chapter X, 152 

In the Constitutional Convention of 
Tvventy-NIne-Thirty — The Distinction 
of Its Membership. 

Chapter XI, 170 

In the Constitutional Convention of 
Twenty-nlne-Thirty — Advocacy of the 
White Basis — Randolph of Roanoke. 



lo WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Chapter XII, 182 

Klected to Congress — Personnel of the Vir- 
ginia Members — The Whig Party — The 
Jefferson Birthday Dinner, 

Chapter XIII, 197 

In Congress — The Nullifiers — Nullifica- 
tion and Secession. 

Chapter XIV, 209 

In Congress — The Bank Controversy — 
The Removal of the Deposits — The Vir- 
ginia Resolutions. 

Chapter XV, 226 

In Congress — Originates the Independent 
Treasury. 

Chapter XVI, 241 

Gordon's Speech In 1835 O" Again Propos- 
ing the Independent Treasury. 

Chapter XVII, 257 

The Independent Treasury. 

Chapter XVIII, 266 

Contemporaries in Congress — i 829-1835. 

Chapter XIX, 281 

Speeches and Debates in Congress — The 
Judiciary Act — The Bill to Remove 
Washington's Body — Address to Con- 
stituents — Tyler's Letter. 

Chapter XX, 297 

Defeated for Congress — Calhoun's Letter 
on Jackson's Dictation of a Successor — 
Barnwell on the Whigs — Tyler and the 
Expunging Resolution. 

Chapter XXI, 309 

Slavery on its Domestic Side — Nat's Insur- 
rection — The Tragedy at Germanna. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON ii 

Chapter XXII, 319 

1 he Slavery Petitions — Slavery and Seces- 
sion — The Compromise of 1850. 

Chapter XXIII, 333 

I'he Nashville Convention of 1850 — The 
Cradle of the Southern Confederacy. 

Chapter XXIV, 348 

Manners and Customs of Congressmen — 
Houston's Assault on Stanbery — The 
Newspapers. 

Chapter XXV, 363 

Returns to the Bar — On the Circuit — The 
Albemarle Lawyers — Letters on the In- 
fluences of Slavery. 

Chapter XXVI, 373 

Letters to His AVife — Anecdotes — Death. 

Chapter XXVII, 386 

Conclusion. 

Bibliography, 395 



INTRODUCTION 

In his "Life of James Monroe," in the "Ameri- 
can Statesmen" series of biographies, Dr. Daniel C. 
Oilman, in allusion to the unwritten story of many 
"illustrious Virginians whose memory it is well to 
revive," quotes St. George Tucker's letter to William 
Wirt, in which he says "in a half-playful, half-earnest 
tone, that Socrates himself would pass unnoticed 
and forgotten in Virginia, if he were not a public 
character, and some of his speeches preserved in a 
newspaper." 

"Who knows anything," queries Tucker, "of 
Peyton Randolph, one of the most popular micn in 
Virginia? Who remembers Thompson Mason, es- 
teemed the foremost lawyer at the bar ; or his brother 
George Mason, of whom I have heard Mr. Madi- 
son say that he possessed the greatest talents for 
debate of any man he had ever heard speak? What 
is known of Dabney Carr, but that he made the mo- 
tion for appointing committees of correspondence in 
1773? Virginia has produced few men of finer 
talents, as I have repeatedly heard. I might name a 
number of others, highly respected and influential 
men — yet how little is known of one half of them 
at the present day?" 

Even those who were public characters, and had 
their speeches preserved in newspapers, have not all 
escaped the corroding tooth of time; and there are 
many men named in this volume, of whom no biog- 
raphy has yet been written, who were well worthy 
to adorn the annals of any period of any people. 

A valid reason which may be alleged for this neg- 
lect is that for a long time, both in the Colony and 
the Commonwealth, the ablest men in Virginia were 
more interested in making history than in keeping 
a record of it; and that consequently there was as 



14 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

little consideration of preserving original sources as 
of reducing them to literary form. And so it has 
happened, with respect to the period of which this 
biography treats, that the Jeffersonian view of the 
Federal Constitution, which flourished in Gordon's 
time as one of its chief political influences, has been 
far less widely advertised or adequately presented in 
written substance than has been that of the Hamil- 
tonian school; and the State-Rights construction has 
for the later generations lost much cf its prestige and 
influence through its failure to secure a more general 
and permanent hearing from the public. 

The Southern participants in political affairs who 
succeeded the men of the Revolutionary epoch, and 
whose careers extended over the first half of the 
nineteenth century, were temporarily neglected or 
forgotten in the stress of arms and in the ensuing 
social cataclysm which accompanied the War between 
the States in 1 861-1865; and the events of that migh- 
ty struggle served too often to obscure even the most 
significant occurrences which preceded and led up to 
it. In the devastation and ruin of the South which 
the war left in its wake, no small part of the material 
out of which that earlier history might have been 
fashioned, also perished; and it has only been in 
recent years that the serious gathering together of 
such material as was left from the wreck, and its 
painstaking reduction into permanent form, have 
had an inception and awakened an interest among the 
Southern people. 

Of the subject of this volume, though belonging 
to a later generation than any of the four men 
named by Tucker in his letter to Wirt, comparatively 
little is now generally remembered even in the State 
in whose public affairs he filled for a while no in- 
considerable space, and where he was known as one 
of the most eloquent popular orators of his day; while 
even the writers who have undertaken to deal learn- 
edly with the great financial device of the national 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 15 

Sub-Treasury, of which he was the originator, make 
mention of him only in the most cursory manner. 
Thousands of Virginians, for whom the story of Jef- 
ferson's great nursery of intellectual achievement, 
the University of Virginia, possesses an abiding in- 
terest, have little or no knowledge of the persistent 
and important part that was played by Gordon, in 
the General Assembly of the Commonwealth, in ac- 
complishing its final and practical creation, organi- 
zation, and location; while even less known to them 
is the story of his successful settlement, in the Con- 
stitutional Convention of 1 829-1 830, of the basis 
of representation which had caused the convocation 
of the convention, and whose adjustment by him 
probably deferred for more than three decades the 
political separation of what is now West Virginia 
from the mother State. And of the unnumbered 
throng that daily passes the Sub-Treasury building in 
Wall street, in the city of New York, where the statue 
of Washington marks the spot on which Randolph of 
Roanoke saw him take the oath to support the Fed- 
eral Constitution, and saw too, "the poison under its 
wings," perhaps not one in a million knows that the 
Sub-Treasury of the National Government emanated 
from the brain of Gordon and was formulated by his 
pen. 

He was a typical representative of the school of 
political thought that had its origins in the teachings 
of Mr. Jefferson and its apotheosis in the unsuccess- 
ful but none the less brilliant and logical statesman- 
ship of John C. Calhoun; and he was the trusted 
personal and political friend and associate of each 
of these great Americans. In his generation the pub- 
lic career occupied and illustrated the ablest intel- 
lects of the South. Letters and science and art and 
the commercialism of money-making were all sub- 
ordinated to the study and practice of government; 
and amid the social and political conditions which 
prevailed statesmanship became a second nature to 



1 6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the able, the patriotic and the ambitious Southerners 
who pursued it. 

Under the contemporary and early posthumous in- 
fluence of Mr. Jefferson, a large part of the political 
life and thought of the first half of the nineteenth 
century was permeated with his opinions and teach- 
ings; and Gordon, who had come early and inti- 
mately within the sphere of that influence, continued 
throughout his life a devout adherent of Jeffersonian 
republicanism. A passionate devotion to Virginia as 
the Commonwealth, under whose protecting aegis 
liberty should always find her place of refuge and 
home, was the motive of his political direction and 
the guide of his public career; while only second to 
this devotion to his State was his attachment to the 
Union of confederated States according to his inter- 
pretation of the Federal Constitution. 

To his intense loyalty to these ideals he gave the 
service of his energies and talents, with little of the 
ambition that is most careful of self, and with the 
spirit of patriotism set high above that of partisan- 
ship. He left his party in the high tide of its success 
for what he regarded the good of his country; and 
surrendered a career that stretched fair and far be- 
fore him for the sake of political principle. 

The delineation of him that has been attempted 
here has contemplated also some depiction of the 
atrnosphere In which he moved, and the environment 
which surrounded him. It Is to be regretted that the 
larger part of his correspondence was destroyed by 
an accident in the time of the War between the 
States. Except his letters to his wife, many of which 
however, are fortunately more or less political in a 
narrative and descriptive way, little of an epistolary 
character, either written to him or from his hand, 
survives. Yet enough remains In the letters from 
Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Calhoun, President Tyler and 
others, here reproduced, and In most Instances for 
the first time published, to Indicate a measure of the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 17 

esteem in which he was held by many of the wise 
and virtuous spirits of his age. 

In the attempted picture of any public man's 
career the background must necessarily hold more or 
less of the contemporary movement of the period. 
The account here sought to be given of Gordon's 
times does not purport, however, to contain more 
than some detail of the events with which he was 
most closely associated, or which bulked so large as 
to compel observance of them. His adult life, ex- 
tending as it did from Jefferson's second administra- 
tion to that of Buchanan, covered a space that was 
crowded thick with historic happenings; and for a 
narrative of even the fewest of these there is but 
little room here. 

So, too, of the men of his day mention has only 
been made of those of his own vicinage, or of his 
personal and political acquaintance and fellowship. 
If these shall seem unduly to throng the canvas, it 
may be pleaded in extenuation that the masters of 
history have set an example in illuminating their 
pages with the portrayal of contemporary figures of 
distinction; and that even in the limited space per- 
mitted to those here mentioned some memories 
worthy of preservation may be revived which have 
already grown faded, or become in degree forgotten ; 
or some strong figure, well-known and yet remem- 
bered, may stand forth again in renewed, if brief, 
distinctness. 



CHAPTER I 

Ancestry 

From the time of the Cromwellian settlement of 
Ireland, when "the baronies were assigned in Con- 
naught for the new settlements of the ancient no- 
bility, gentry and farmers of the Irish nation, cor- 
responding in character to their old habitations in the 
three other provinces from v/hence they were trans- 
planted," down to the present day, Ulster, the north- 
ernmost and nearest to Scotland of these three prov- 
inces, has been essentially Scotch. Separated from 
the Galloway county of Wigtonshire by a stretch of 
water only thirty miles wide, for the distance is no 
more than that by steamer to-day from Larne to Port- 
patrick, Ulster afforded an inviting field of enter- 
prise to the venturous and canny inhabitants of Cale- 
donia; who, as soon as they discovered room and 
opportunity, poured into northern Ireland in a steady 
stream of such numbers, that Scottish names are as 
frequent now throughout the whole province as in 
the country of their origin; while the cold religion 
of Knox has thenceforward so continued to flourish 
there as to cause those of a different faith elsewhere 
in Ireland, where politics and religion go hand In 
hand, to speak of the region as "Black Ulster." But 
under the thrifty and self-contained influences of the 
Scotchmen, prosperity has accompanied the Scotch 
blood and the Scotch burr in their adopted home; 
and no one of the Ulster counties has proven more 
fertile, more thrifty and more fortunate than the 
County Down, which is the most eastern county of 
Ireland lying upon the Irish Sea. Its most considera- 
ble place is the ancient town of Newry, seated on the 
Narrow Water, at the head of Carlingford Loch, 
and almost surrounded by mountains and rocky hills, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 19 

except to the north and northwest, where a prospect 
opens Into a good country, through which the canal 
is carried that runs to Lough Neagh, famed in 
Moore's song as holding beneath its waters the 
"Round Towers of other days." In 1689 the Duke 
of Berwick burned the town of Newry to secure 
his retreat to Dundalk from the English under 
Schomberg. "It has been greatly improved since the 
settlement in 1691," says its ingenuous chronicler, 
"and is now one of the largest and most commercial 
towns in the country." 

In 1 175 a Cistercian Abbey was founded at Newry 
by Maurice McLaughlin, King of all Ireland, which 
possessed extensive endowments and privileges, and 
large areas of adjacent land. In 1543 the Abbey 
was converted into a collegiate church for secular 
priests, and was finally dissolved by King Edward 
VI of England, who granted it and its possessions to 
Sir Nicholas Bagenal, Marshal of Ireland. Sir 
Nicholas made the Abbey his private residence, and 
under his auspices Newry entered upon its career of 
growth and prosperity. The Bagenal family con- 
tinued to possess some portions at least of the Abbey 
properties down to the period of the Revolution of 
1688; for in the "Charter Abbatiae," of the old 
Cistercians of St. Benedict, which was granted them 
by the Irish King Maurice, we find included, among 
other lands and territories conferred upon the Abbey, 
"the land of Enacratha," which is now Carnmeen, 
"with its woods and waters," and "the land of Lis- 
dorca," now Lisduff; and in 1692 the public records 
show portions of the townlands of Carnmeen and 
Lisduff, situated in the vicinity of the Sheepbridge, 
about three miles north of the town of Newry, to 
have been the property of Nicholas Bagenal, es- 
quire, namesake and descendant of the marshal. 

On the 28th of November, 1692, James Gordon, 
"of Sheepbridge in the Barony of Newry, gentle- 
man," as he is described in the old conveyances, was 



20 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

granted a lease held In fee farm of the half town- 
land of Cloughenramer and the half town-land of 
Derraboy by this Nicholas Bagenal, esquire; and on 
the 22d of March, 1731, the lease, which was in 
effect a fee simple tenure, subject to an annuity, was 
confirmed to the three sons of James Gordon, with 
the addition of the half town-land of Lisduff and the 
quarter town-land of Carnmeen, including an almost 
baronial tract, which comprised what was thence- 
forth known as the Sheepbridge estates. This prop- 
erty, which continued to remain in the possession of 
the Gordon family, though with steady diminutions 
from generation to generation, due to the hospitality, 
the free-living and the sporting proclivities of its 
successive owners, until the mansion house and a 
remnant of something more than one hundred acres 
were left, was -^old in 1902, the last male Gordon 
owner of Sheepbridge having died as a youth of nine- 
teen years, in 1891. 

A careful examination of all the documentary evi- 
dence, in the shape of public records and contem- 
poraneous writings that have proven accessible, tend 
to show that the first James Gordon of Sheepbridge, 
was a son of the Reverend James Gordon, of Com- 
ber, also a town In county Down. This reverend 
gentleman was a Scotch chaplain in the regiment of 
Lord Montgomery, a constituent part of Crom- 
well's invading army, and seems to have been 
under the especial patronage of Lady Montgomery, 
who was "the daughter of an Alexander of Aber- 
deenshire, Scotland, and a rigid Presbyterian." This 
lady is said to have been a personage of high social 
importance and distinction in her day; and became, 
after the Cromwelllan Invasion, the Viscountess 
Mount Alexander. After her husband's death she 
miarrled the famous Scotch General, Robert Munro. 

In the Commissary records of the town of Elgin, 
in Morayshire, Scotland, we find that in 1649 ^^Is 
"Mr. James Gordoune, minister at Comber, in Ire- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 21 

land, sone lauchfull to umquhlle Alexander Gordoune 
of Satterhill," executed a certain instrument of gift to 
his brother, "Alexander Gordoune," and "umquhile 
Alexander," the father, is indicated by the records 
to have descended from one of the most ancient of 
the Gordon families of the north of Scotland. 

The grandsons of the first James Gordon of Vir- 
ginia, brought with them to the Colony, in 1738, the 
crest of the Lesmoir Gordons, described in heraldic 
phrase as "a hart's head proper," and their motto 
"Bydand," engraven on some pieces of silver plate; 
but neither for pedigree nor crest did their demo- 
cratic descendant, whose life is sought to be depicted 
in these pages, care anything. He was a disciple 
and friend of Thomas Jefferson, and growing up in 
the aftermath of democratic rev^olutions, eschewed 
the assumptions of aristocracy. He was satisfied 
to think and to say that it "took three generations 
to make a gentleman," and that he was assured of 
his right to the title, and looked no further. 

James Gordon the first, of Sheepbridge, in the 
barony of Newry, whose will is dated July 7, 1707, 
married Jane Campbell, a merchant of Newry, by 
his wife, Jane Wallace, of Ravarra, near Belfast, 
of the ancient house of Wallace of Elderslie. It was 
the custom of the Scotch in Ulster to intermarry 
among themselves; and only in most exceptional in- 
stances do we find this custom violated by marriage 
with the native Irish. This persistent tendency has 
been the chief factor in preserving their racial in- 
tegrity in their local environment. Jane Wallace, 
the mother of Gordon's wife, was a character of 
celebrity in the history of the town of Newry. In 
1689, when the town was burned by King James' 
army, she fled with her younger children to the Isle of 
Man, whose outlines, and those of the farther hills 
of England, are visible on a clear day from the 
Mourne mountains near Newry. As soon as King 
William restored peace to Ulster, she returned and 



22 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

re-established her family in their former home, 
"having," as her family chronicler naively relates, "a 
strength of mind superior to difficulties." Besides 
her daughter Jane, who married James Gordon, she 
had a number of children, whose families became 
so important and influential in the vicinage that they 
were locally known as "The Grand Alliance." Mrs. 
Campbell lived to a green old age; and it is further 
chronicled concerning her that she "had great au- 
thority and commanded great respect." She sur- 
vived the death of her husband forty-three years, and, 
surrounded by a great number of descendants, "saw 
the fifth generation, a child brought from Scotland 
to be presented to her with much filial respect." 

James Gordon the first, of Sheepbridge, and his 
wife, Jane Campbell, had Issue three sons, James, 
Robert and George. James inherited the Sheep- 
bridge estates, and married Sarah Greenway, the 
daughter of a prominent merchant of Newry; and 
of their marriage were born four sons and three 
daughters. Two of these sons, the first and third, 
who were James and John, emigrated to Virginia in 
the early part of the eighteenth century, and were 
respectively the maternal and paternal grandfathers 
of William Fitzhugh Gordon, his father having been 
the son of John Gordon, and his mother the daughter 
of the elder emigrant, James. 

The second son, Samuel Gordon, under his father's 
will, and by subsequent purchase from his brothers 
In Virginia, became the owner of the larger portion 
of the Sheepbridge lands, and of the mansion-house, 
an Imposing stuccoed edifice of three stories, sit- 
uated on a hill on the road leading northward to 
Rathfriland, which was built by the first James. The 
fourth brother, George, likewise came to Virginia, 
where he resided for a brief period, and returned to 
Ireland. Of his descendants are the present Gor- 
dons of Maryvale, near Newry, who are a prominent 
family In the County Down. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 23 

In the Sheepbridge descent were several men of 
the name who took a conspicuous part in the Irish 
RebelHon of 1798, and in what was known as the 
"Volunteer Movement," preceding it. One of these 
was John Gordon of Templegowran, eldest son of 
Samuel of Sheepbridge, of whose rescue from prison 
by his wife, after his arrest and transportation to 
Belfast by the English soldiery, a romantic story 
is told in the local chronicles. This John of Tem- 
plegowran was of patriotic spirit, for we find him 
again, though a zealous Presbyterian and church- 
builder, espousing the movement in April, 18 12, in 
favor of Catholic Emancipation. 

Another of the family, who took part in the "Vol- 
unteer Movement," and the Rebellion of 1798, was 
Captain William Gordon, of Sheepbridge, younger 
brother of John, of Templegowran, who is said by 
Macnevin, in his "History of the Volunteer Move- 
ment of 1782 in Ireland," to have raised and 
equipped at his own expense a company, known as 
"The Sheepbridge Volunteers," for service in the 
Rebellion. 

Colonel James Gordon, the eldest son of James 
Gordon, the second, of Sheepbridge, and his wife, 
Sarah Greenway, was born at Sheepbridge in 17 14. 
Before 1738 he emigrated to Virginia and settled in 
Lancaster county, on the north side of the Rappa- 
hannock River, in what is known as the Northern 
Neck. Here, at Merry Point, on the Corotoman 
River he built his mansion-house, which is still stand- 
ing, and engaged in the exportation of tobacco from 
Virginia to Whitehaven in England. He amassed 
a fortune in the tobacco trade, and was a personage 
of importance and influence in his county; and in 
spite of his Presbyterianism, a member of the parish 
vestry, which under the union of church and state, 
constituted the local political governing body. He 
is represented as a man of great personal piety by 
Foote, in his "Sketches of Virginia," and it is certain 



24 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

that he was one of the founders and chief supporters 
of the Presbyterian Church in a section of country 
dominated by the estabhshed Church of England. 
Yet for all his devoutness he was an owner of slaves, 
a number of whom he bought from slave-ships com- 
ing Into the Rappahannock; he operated a distillery 
on one of his plantations and manufactured ardent 
spirits; and he conducted a lottery for the benefit of 
a Presbyterian meeting-house, which was built chiefly 
through his efforts. All these things he tells of in 
a "Journal" which he kept for many years, in which 
he recorded not only his business transactions but 
all the local happenings, including an occasional 
serious matter of neighborhood scandal; and in it he 
also kept a record, which was a voluminous one, of 
the persons who visited at his house. This journal 
affords a pleasing insight into the daily domestic life 
of a colonial merchant and planter of the period; 
and is full of entertaining incidents of the visitors 
who thronged his hospitable home. Whitefield, the 
great English evangelist, came on one occasion, and 
was received with enthusiasm and a lavish welcome; 
and when he departed "to the Northward," in the 
quaint phraseology of the journal, took with him 
as the gift of his generous host a new chaise and a 
pair of handsome horses. 

Colonel James Gordon died at his house in Lan- 
caster, In 1758, leaving behind him, in his obituary 
In the Virginia Gazette, of January 14, 1768, the 
story of having been one of the most accomplished 
and admirable men of his times. He married first, 
on March 28, 1742, Mllicent Conway, youngest 
daughter of Colonel Edwin Conway, of Lancaster, 
whose first wife was Ann Ball, half-sister of the 
mother of Washington. Gordon's second wife, 
whom he married on November 12, 1748, was Mary 
Harrison, youngest daughter of Colonel Nathaniel 
Harrison, of Wakefield, Surry county, a younger 
brother of that Benjamin Harrison, of Berkeley, on 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 25 

James River, whose grandson, Benjamin, was a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence, and father of 
General William Henry Harrison, President of the 
United States. 

It is interesting to note that Colonel Nathaniel 
Harrison, of Wakefield, was the first Harrison 
owner of Brandon, the famous colonial mansion on 
James River, of which Tyler in "The Cradle of the 
Republic," says: "Brandon and Merchant's Hope, 
or Powell Brook, became the joint property of 
Richard Quiney and his brother-in-law, John Sadler. 
The Quineys were from Stratford on Avon. Thomas 
Quiney married Judith, the daughter of William 
Shakespeare. Richard Quiney's wife, Ellen Sadler, 
daughter of John Sadler, was aunt of Ann Sadler, 
the wife of John Harvard, founder of Harvard Col- 
lege. Richard Quiney's moiety in Brandon as well 
as in Powell Brook, descended to his son Thomas, 
who in his will left the same to his great-nephew, 
Robert Richardson; and he in 1720 conveyed the 
same to Nathaniel Harrison, to whom the other 
moiety doubtless had, not long before, passed from 
the Sadlers." 

The issue of the marriage of Colonel James Gor- 
don and his wife Mary Harrison were four sons and 
five daughters, whose descendants are to be found in 
many states of the American Union, the men of 
whom in all the generations have upborne the sol- 
dierly qualities of their Cromwellian progenitor, and 
frequently, though not so persistently, the religious 
characteristics which are supposed to belong to a 
puritan chaplain. 

The eldest daughter of Colonel Gordon's second 
marriage became at the early age of thirteen years 
the wife of the Reverend James Waddell, whose 
parents emigrated to Pennsylvania from the County 
Down, and who was born on the Atlantic Ocean 
during their voyage over. The imaginative sailors 
dubbed him "the child of the ship and star;" and 



26 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

he became in time one of the most eloquent and dis- 
tinguished ministers of his generation in America. 
William Wirt, in the "British Spy," gives a graphic 
account of his physical appearance, and of his won- 
derful gift of speech — an account which superseded 
the sailor's appellation with the more famous one of 
"the Blind Preacher." In his old age Mr. Waddell 
lived in Louisa County; and his wife's nephew, Wil- 
liam Fitzhugh Gordon, resided temporarily In his 
family when a lad, and went to school to his son, 
James Gordon Waddell. His association with "the 
Blind Preacher" made a lasting impression upon 
Gordon's plastic mind; and he was fond of nar- 
rating how the old gentleman would say to him, 
"William, popularity is a phantom that flees as you 
pursue It, — let It follow you"; or express to him the 
wish that when his time came to depart, he might 
"steal away from earth." 

Another daughter, Elizabeth, married her first 
cousin, James Gordon, of Orange, or James Gordon, 
junior, as he was Indifferently called, who was the 
oldest son of the Immigrant, John Gordon, of Sheep- 
bridge; and the second son of this marriage was 
William Fitzhugh Gordon. 

Colonel James Gordon, of Lancaster, left a will, 
which was proved February i8, 1768; In which he 
made disposition of a large estate, consisting of 
lands, negro slaves and personal property. Nothing 
however, which remained of his possessions Is now 
as Interesting as his "Journal," the portion of which 
that survives, covering a period of five or six years, 
has been published In "The William and Mary Col- 
lege Quarterly," and furnishes very entertaining 
reading. Among Its various Items Is one reciting 
that on a day named, the ship Friendship, out of 
Whitehaven, was anchored In the river near his 
house. The date and the name of the vessel Indicate 
that upon It at that time. In the capacity of cabin boy, 
or occupying some other insignificant subordinate 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 27 

position, was the lad John Paul, son of the Kirkcud- 
brightshire gardener, who later became Commodore 
John Paul Jones of the American Navy, and burnt 
the town of Whitehaven, out of which the Friend- 
ship sailed. 

About 1750, John Hesselius, a distinguished por- 
trait painter of his day, visited Lancaster, and 
painted the portraits of James Gordon and his 
brother John. Both pictures are delineated in the 
ornate costume of the period, belaced and bewigged. 
Colonel James Gordon appears as a florid and some- 
what corpulent personage, wearing a flaxen periwig of 
flowing curls; while his brother John, of a more 
bilious tinge of complexion. Is represented as a young 
gentleman of fashion, with a black peruke of cava- 
lier-like locks, and is armed with a great walking- 
staff. 

Of John Gordon, the younger of the tv/o brothers, 
who came to Virginia, much less is known than of his 
brother James. He was probably not so systematic, 
for we find Colonel James forgiving him a consider- 
able debt in his will; and it is pretty certain that he 
was by no means so religious, or if so his piety must 
have been very strongly militant. For his elder 
brother records in the "Journal" an account of a 
visit paid by him to his brother John at Urbanna, in 
Middlesex County, across the river, where he then 
lived, on the occasion of which he found him suffer- 
ing from a wound in his head, encountered in a fight. 
Mr. Philip Vickers Fithian, a Jersey youth then 
teaching in the family of Councillor Robert Carter, 
of Nomini Hall, in Westmoreland, who was first 
cousin of John Gordon's wife, Lucy Churchill, adds 
in his "Diary" under date of November 30, 1773, 
the no less convincing statement, — unless indeed 
horse-racing was as consistent with religion at that 
time as brandy-making and lotteries seemed to be, — 
that he had been solicited "at the Race" by Mr. Gor- 
don "to take and instruct two of his sons." 



28 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

John, however, in spite of these possible failings, 
possessed also the Scotch thrift and canniness of his 
eldest brother, and accumulated enough gear to serve 
sufficiently his needs in life. The date of his birth at 
Sheepbridge is not known, he not having taken the 
precaution to record it in a family Bible, as did his 
brother James in his own case. But he was probably 
five or six years younger than Colonel James. He 
was in Virginia prior to 1756; and settled at Ur- 
banna, then a port of entry, where his mansion-house 
and brick store-house, in which he housed his export 
tobacco, were still standing a few years ago. He 
was a merchant there, and a planter in Middlesex 
County, as was his brother across the river in Lan- 
caster. He owned several important tracts of land 
in Middlesex, and engaged extensively in the tobacco 
trade with England. In 1762 he sold his estates in 
Middlesex County, and moved to Richmond County, 
on the north side of the Rappahannock, where he 
continued to reside until his death. The exact date 
of this occurrence is as obscure as that of his birth. 
He was living September 17, 1779, the date of his 
conveyance of his interest in the Sheepbridge estate 
in Ireland to his nephew, George Gordon; and he 
was dead before the 6th day of November, 1780, 
when it appears that at a county court held for Rich- 
mond County, his son James Gordon, junior, quali- 
fied as his administrator. There remains no other 
record of his personality or of his domestic life; but 
he appears to have been an individual of Influence 
and property in both counties of Middlesex and Rich- 
mond; and in the latter he was a member of the 
county bench of magistrates, a position of con- 
spicuous local honor and dignity under the colonial 
court system. 

John Gordon married on December 15, 1756, 
Lucy Churchill, daughter of Colonel Armlstead 
Churchill, of Bushy Park, in Middlesex County, and 
his wife, Hannah Harrison, who was a daughter of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 29 

Nathaniel Harrison, of Wakefield, and an elder 
sister of Colonel James Gordon's second wife. 
There were no better families in the Colony, where 
birth and breeding counted for much, than these 
of the river-barons into which the two young Gor- 
dons entered by virtue of their matrimonial alliances; 
and it is said, on contemporary authority, that no 
handsomer couple ever walked down the aisle of 
Wicomico Church than John Gordon and his bride 
on the December day of their wedding, Lucy 
Churchill's father, Colonel Armistead Churchill, was 
the only son, by her second marriage, of Elizabeth 
Armistead, daughter of John Armistead, of "Hesse," 
the councillor. Her first husband had been Ralph 
Wormeley, of "Rosegill" in Middlesex, who was sec- 
retary of the Colony, and of that union were born a 
son, John Wormeley, who was father of Ralph, of 
the Council, and grandfather of Admiral Ralph 
Randolph Wormeley of the British Navy, Of this 
descent, also, were the writers. Miss Katherine Pres- 
cott Wormeley and her sister Mrs, Elizabeth 
Wormeley Latimer, From the marriage of Eliza- 
beth Armistead and Ralph Wormeley, the secretary, 
came a daughter, who was the first wife of Mann 
Page; and his daughter, by her, married William 
Randolph, of Tuckahoe. An aunt of Colonel 
Armistead Churchill's on the maternal side was 
Judith Armistead, wife of "King" Carter, of whom 
Moncure D. Conway has written in "Barons 
of Potowmack and Rappahannock." Colonel 
Churchill's sister, Priscilla, married "King" Carter's 
son of a second marriage, Robert of Nomini Hall; 
and this Robert's fame has come down to us, in and 
out of the pages of Fithlan's gossiping "Diary," as 
that not only of one of the greatest of colonial land- 
owners, but of a musical virtuoso, accomplished man 
of the world, and polished and cultivated scholar. 

Upon the death of Secretary Wormeley his hand- 
some and wealthy widow, residing in her dower 



30 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

demesne of "Rosegill," was "wooed and married 
and a' " by William Churchill, a young Englishman, 
who had well-seated himself in the Colony, coming 
out of North Aston in Oxfordshire, where the 
Churchills had long flourished. William Churchill 
was clerk of the county, an honorable and much 
coveted office both for the sake of its dignity and 
influence and for its valuable emolum.ents and per- 
quisites; and later he became a member of the coun- 
cil. After his marriage to "Madam Wormeley," as 
she was called in her vicinage, he resided at Rosegill, 
an ancient colonial mansion situated near Urbanna 
on a lofty eminence overlooking the Rappahannock 
River, that had been even then the seat of a refined 
and elegant hospitality for half a century; that had 
sheltered a royal governor; and had given welcome 
to King Charles's emissaries from beyond seas, when 
Virginia alone of all his dominions remained loyal. 
Bruce, in his "Social Life of Virginia in the 
Seventeenth Century," has pictured Rosegill as "con- 
taining a large withdrawing room, in addition to 
numerous sleeping-chambers. There was perhaps no 
other residence in Virginia more admirably appointed 
for the entertainment of guests. It was situated 
directly on the banks of the Rappahannock River, in 
one of its widest and noblest reaches, which thus 
afforded extraordinary facilities for boating and sail- 
ing. The library was, perhaps, the choicest and 
largest in the Colony, v/hile the house itself was un- 
usually spacious." 

Here Armistead Churchill was born; and here he 
lived until he established himself in his own house of 
"Bushy Park," farther down the river, from which 
his daughter, Lucy Churchill, married John Gordon. 

It was significant of the personal charm and at- 
traction of the two young Gordons that they should 
have thus entered an "Alliance" in Virginia which 
far exceeded in wealth and power and importance that 
which their ancestor, Jane Campbell, had established 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 3 1 

at Newry; for these Armisteads and Harrisons and 
Carters and Churchills and Conways and Wormeleys 
represented whatever was best in the social and 
political life of the Colony. The river-barons of 
that day were what would be now denominated "a 
close corporation." They intermarried with each 
other, and they stood by each other, socially and 
politically. Thus, these Virginia relatives of the 
Gordons were of such a like singular intenveaving by 
consanguinity and affinity with the Bunvells and the 
Bassetts and the Berkeleys — other river barons, — 
as had led Governor Spotswood at an earlier day to 
complain that the King's Council in Virginia con- 
tained too many of one family: "He says," observes 
Keith, in his "Ancestry of Benjamin Harrison," "in 
one of his published Letters, that six out of the ten 
members were related to Ludwell, who as has been 
shown above was step-uncle of the Burwells; and 
on March 9, 17 13, probably having in mind some 
persons like Nathaniel Harrison, whose brother had 
married a Burwell, declares: 'The greater part of 
the present council are related to the Family of the 
Burwells * * * If Mr. Bassett and Mr. 
Berkeley should take their places, there will be no 
less than seven so near related that they will go off 
the Bench, whenever a Cause of the Burwells come 
to be tryed.' " 

At this period there had grown up in the river- 
valleys of Virginia, where the lands were fertile and 
the means of travel and communication by water 
easy, a wealthy and prosperous class of planters, 
whose seats of wealth and luxury were made possible 
by the existence of negro slavery, and by the tre- 
mendous development of the tobacco trade with Eng- 
land and Scotland. The riches and power of these 
people were miore than baronial; and are illustrated 
in the histories of their families. They constituted 
a social and political society in the Province that was 
as preeminent as it was exclusive. 



32 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

In his "Bristol Parish" Dr. Slaughter gives a vivid 
account of the Virginia tobacco trade, which most 
began to flourish in the early half of the eighteenth 
century, and was carried on by the colonial planters 
and merchants with London and Whitehaven and 
Glasgow. 

"It was the tobacco trade," writes Dr. Slaughter, 
"which gave such impulse to Blandford; and Vir- 
ginia's chief market was Glasgow, so soon as the 
American trade was thrown open to Scotland by her 
union with England (1707). From this era dates 
the prosperity of Glasgow itself. Up to the middle 
of the last (i8th) century the foreign trade of Glas- 
go was conducted by joint-stock companies. A 
Glasgow vessel of sixty tons first crossed the Atlantic 
in 17 1 8. The first adventure to Virginia, (says 
Dugald Valentine's Diary), was under the sole 
charge of the captain acting as supercargo. When 
he was asked on his return for a statement of his 
accounts, he replied that he had no statement; but 
here were the proceeds, throwing upon the table a 
large hoggar (stocking) stuffed to the top with coin. 
As an unlettered man had been so successful, they 
thought a trained accountant would do better; and 
so they sent one; and he came back with a beautiful 
statement, but no hoggar. 

"The trade so increased that about 1735 the 
Scotch merchants sent factors to live in Virginia and 
buy tobacco to the best advantage. Hence Scotch 
merchants poured into Dumfries on the Potomac, 
Falmouth on the Rappahannock, and many other 
towns Including Blandford. In 1772, out of ninety 
thousand hogsheads of tobacco Imported into Britain, 
Glasgow Imported forty-nine thousand; and one of 
her merchants (Glass ford) owned twenty-five ships 
In the trade. The tobacco-lords were the magnates 
(great folks) of Glasgow. They promenaded the 
Trongate In long scarlet robes and bushy wigs, and 
other men gave way as they passed. Virginia Street 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 33 

and Jamaica Street in Glasgow still perpetuate the 
memory of the trade which enriched her merchants, 
and gave such great impulse to her prosperity, and 
changed her social physiognomy." 

As the tobacco trade enriched the merchants of 
Glasgow, so the cultivation and exportation of the 
weed enriched the river-barons of Colonial Virginia 
who "raised" it with their hordes of negro slaves 
upon fertile and teeming low-ground plantations. 
But tobacco in this first decade of the twentieth cen- 
tury is now only a memory along the Rappahannock 
River, having vanished therefrom as a staple crop 
as entirely as the social life that grew out of it and 
was organized upon it has utterly disappeared. 



CHAPTER II 

PARENTS 

A characteristic of the families of the river- 
planters in colonial days was the large number of 
children. The complex civilization of to-day which 
tends to minimize the size of the average well-to-do 
family in America was unknown to the wealthy colo- 
nists, who led the simple life of their period in a 
luxury that seemed to deny the existence of sim- 
plicity. After the fashion of their neighbors John 
Gordon and his wife, Lucy Churchill, had a large 
family. Their children were twelve in number, and 
of these the oldest was James, called "junior," and 
"of Orange," to distinguish him from his first cousin, 
James Gordon, of Lancaster, oldest son of Colonel 
James, the immigrant. 

James Gordon, of Orange, was born at Urbanna 
in 1759; and was therefore but a child when his 
father moved to Richmond County, higher up the 
river, to live. At the age of twenty-two he was 
elected to represent that county in the House of 
Delegates of the General Assembly of Virginia, his 
colleague being Robert W. Carter, of the stock of 
the "King." In the same session the adjacent county 
of Lancaster was represented by his cousin James 
Gordon, about nine years his senior; and these two 
cousins, who were also brothers-in-law, were mem- 
bers together of the Virginia Convention of 1788, 
that ratified the Federal Constitution. In spite of 
the spread of democratic ideas in the new Republic, 
the old families still continued powerful both in the 
social and political life; and the rosters of General 
Assemblies and conventions in Virginia, after it had 
become a Commonwealth, were for a long period 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 35 

alike made up of the surnames that had appeared 
upon the legislative records of the colony. 

James Gordon, of Orange, married his first cousin, 
Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel James Gordon, of 
Lancaster, and his wife, Mary Harrison, in August, 
1777; and before his father's death removed from 
Richmond County to "Germanna" in Orange 
County, where he spent the remainder of his life as a 
planter and country gentleman — a career that was 
only briefly interrupted by his service as a delegate 
in the State Convention of 1788. 

"The ancient town of Germanna, founded by Gov- 
ernor Spotswood," and the original county-seat of 
Spottsylvania, is described by Hugh Jones, in his 
"Present State of Virginia," published in 1724. 
"Beyond Colonel Spotswood's furnace," he writes, 
"above the Falls of Rappahannock River, within 
view of the vast mountains, he has founded a town 
called Germ.anna, from some Germans sent over by 
Queen Anne, who are now removed up further. 
Here he has servants and workmen of most handi- 
craft trades; and he is building a church, court-house 
and dwelling-house for himself; and with his ser- 
vants and negroes he has cleared plantations about it, 
proposing great encouragement for people to come 
and settle in that uninhabited part of the world, 
lately divided into a county." 

Some years after Hugh Jones's book was pub- 
lished, that colonial litterateur and society magnate. 
Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, visited Ger- 
manna, and gave in his account of "A Progress to 
the Mines" a vivid and picturesque description of 
"this famous town," which, he says, "consists of 
Colonel Spotswood's enchanted castle on one side of 
the street, and a baker's dozen of ruinous tenements 
on the other, where so many German families had 
dwelt some years ago ; but are now removed ten miles 
higher, in the fork of the Rappahannock to land of 
their own"; and where, too, "there had also been 



36 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

a chapel about a bowshot from the Colonel's house, 
at the end of an avenue of cherry trees, but some 
pious people had lately burnt it down, with intent to 
get another built nearer to their own homes." 

By the time that James Gordon moved from Rich- 
mond County to settle at Germanna, the tide of 
population, which had at first been almost altogether 
along the river-ways, was flowing out into those 
"uninhabited parts of the world" that were primarily 
Orange and Augusta counties, a vast territory ex- 
panding indefinitely to the west and northwest, which 
later became, at the generous gift of Virginia to the 
Union, many great and populous commonwealths. 

Here, in the vicinity of a barren stretch of inhos- 
pitable territory, a border line between Spottsylvania 
and Orange, described as "of melancholy, forbidding 
exterior," and known as "The Wilderness," where 
nearly a century after his coming some of the most 
sanguinary battles of the fiercest war of modern his- 
tory were fought, James Gordon builded his house, 
and acquired acres of fertile river lands, and reared 
his children; and here he throve apace and pros- 
pered in worldly gear, until in his later years the 
prodigal hospitality which characterized many Vir- 
ginia homes of the period brought him finally to 
modest circumstances, though not to poverty. Here, 
too, he grew and advanced in the good opinion of 
his neighbors and the community, as a man of cour- 
age, of probity and of intelligence, until when the 
time came in 1788 for the people of Virginia to 
determine the momentous question of their future 
relations to the other sovereign States of the Con- 
federation, the people of Orange elected him, along 
with James Madison, as their representative in the 
convention called to pass upon the question of the 
adoption or rejection of the new Federal Constitu- 
tion. James Gordon was a strong advocate of adop- 
tion; and entertaining a warm personal and political 
friendship for Mr. N4adison, was eager to see him 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 37 

elected as a delegate. On the 17th of February, 
1788, we find him writing from Germanna to the 
latter, then in New York, as follows : 

''Dear Sir: Being favored by Colonel Monroe 
with a sight of your letter of the 27th of January, 
and finding no mention therein of your being in our 
country in a short time, I take the liberty as your 
friend to solicit your attendance at March Orange 
court, I am induced to make such a request as I 
believe it will give the country in general great satis- 
faction to hear your sentiments on the new Consti- 
tution. Your friends are very solicitous for your ap- 
pointment in the convention to meet in June next. I 
trust, were it not practicable for you to attend, your 
election will be secured; but your being present 
would not admit a doubt. Colonel Thomas Barbour, 
Mr, Charles Porter, and myself enter the list with 
you. The two former gentlemen are exceedingly 
averse to the adoption of the constitution in this 
State; and, being acquainted with them, you will 
readily determine no means in their power will be 
wanting to procure a seat in convention. The senti- 
ments of the people of Orange are much divided. 
The best men, in my judgment, are for the constitu- 
tion; but several of those who have much weight 
with the people are opposed, — Parson Bledsoe and 
Leeland, and Colonel Z. Burnley. Upon the whole, 
sir, I think it is incumbent on you without delay to re- 
pair to this State; as the loss of the constitution in 
this State may involve consequences the most alarm- 
ing to every citizen of America. 

"I am, Dear Sir, Your most obedient servant, 

"James Gordon." 

General Washington had written to Mr. Madison 
two weeks earlier, urging him to offer himself as a 
candidate for the convention; and other friends and 
supporters insisted, as James Gordon had done, that 
he should return and conduct his canvass in person. 



38 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Madison wrote that he was reluctant in the matter. 
"I can say, with great truth," he said, "that in this 
overture I sacrifice every private incHnation to con- 
siderations not of a selfish nature. I foresee that the 
undertaking will involve me in very laborious and 
irksome discussions; that public opposition to sev- 
eral very respectable characters, whooC esteem and 
friendship I greatly prize, may unintentionally en- 
danger the existing connection; and that disagree- 
able misconstructions, of which samples have been 
already given, may be the fruit of those exertions 
which fidelity will impose." 

In response, however, to the summons of his 
friends he left New York, where he was in attend- 
ance on the session of Congress as a delegate from 
Virginia, and stopping on his way at Mount Vernon 
to see General Washington, arrived in Orange on the 
day before the election. 

Colonel Frank Taylor, of Orange, in his "Diary," 
a portion of which is published in Slaughter's "St. 
Mark's Parish," says under date of 1788, "March 
24th. Election, for Convention, James Madison 
202 votes, James Gordon 187, C. Porter 34." Mr. 
Barbour's vote does not appear, although he seems 
to have remained in the field. 

It vv^as no inconsiderable distinction for James 
Gordon, at the age of twenty-nine, to have been se- 
lected for so important and responsible an ofBce; 
and the significance of his election was emphasized in 
the fact that his colleague was a man whose fame as 
a statesman was already spread over all the States, 
and who later became the expounder and interpreter 
of the Constitution on which they were to pass, and 
a chief executive officer of its administration. The 
Hon. William C. Rives, in his "Life and Times of 
Madison," adds to the candidates named by Colonel 
Taylor, and as stated by James Gordon in his letter 
to Mr. Madison, the name of "Colonel Thomas 
Barbour, father of Mr. James and Mr. Philip Bar- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 39 

bour, each of whom rose to great future eminence In 
the public service of the country"; and with each of 
whom James Gordon's son, William Fitzhugh Gor- 
don, maintained a personal friendship that was inti- 
mate and a political sympathy that was unwavering 
and lasting. 

The convention, which assembled in Richmond on 
the 2nd day of June, 1788, continued its session for 
nearly a month. "On Wednesday, the 4th day of 
June," says Mr. Rives, "the convention resolved 
itself into a com^mittee of the whole, Mr. Wythe in 
the chair, to take into consideration the proposed plan 
of government. In the lists, on the side of the Con- 
stitution, appeared as the principal combatants, Mr. 
Pendleton, Mr. Madison, Governor Randolph, Mr. 
George Nicholas, Mr. John Marshall, Mr. Innes, 
Colonel Henry Lee and Mr. Corbin; In opposition 
to it, Mr. Henry, Colonel Mason, Mr. Monroe, Mr. 
Grayson, Colonel Benjamin Harrison, former Gov- 
ernor, and Mr. Tyler." 

Patrick Henry, with fiery Impetuosity, proclaimed 
the issue in his opening speech. 

"Give me leave," he said, "to demand what right 
had they to say, 'We the people,' Instead of 'We the 
States?'" 

James Gordon's attitude In the convention was one 
of modesty and self-effacement. His political views 
and principles were those of Mr. Madison; and 
while we find him vigorously espousing what was 
then the Federalist cause, his Federalism was never 
of the Hamlltonian type, which sought to exalt the 
central government at the expense of the sovereignty 
of the States. His anxiety was to see the adoption of 
a form of government that should prove more cohe- 
sive and vigorous than that under the Articles of 
Confederation; but he was in other respects as con- 
servative as was his great colleague, of whom Hamil- 
ton, in factious anger, said, when he found Madison 
opposing the assumption of the debts of the States 



40 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

by the General Government, "I cannot persuade 
myself that Mr. Madison and I, whose politics had 
formerly so much the same point of departure, 
should now diverge so widely in our opinions of the 
measures which are proper to be pursued." 

Being a simple planter and country gentleman, 
James Gordon entertained no political ambitions. 
He was a delegate inspired with a patriotic desire to 
serve his people according to his best lights; and 
while he does not figure conspicuously in the de- 
bates of the convention, yet it may well be imagined 
that possessing strong convictions, endowed with 
health and energy, and wielding the persuasive in- 
fluences of a magnetic and pleasing personality, he 
illustrated by his services in the committee-room 
those qualities which had made him the choice of his 
constituency at home. 

The Federal Constitution was adopted by Vir- 
ginia; and James Gordon retired finally from public 
life to the more pleasing duties and occupations of a 
domestic and social career. Yet with his retirement 
he did not cease to maintain an earnest interest in 
politics, and in the successful administration of gov- 
ernment under its new instrumentalities. On the 
31st of August, 1788, still absorbed with the public 
questions of the day, he wrote to Mr. Madison, 
again in New York in attendance on the Congress : 

"My dear Sir: Your several letters of the 25th 
and 27th of July I have received; and should have 
finswered them ere this, but they did not come to 
hand until a few days since at Orange Court House. 

"I am pleased to find the ratification of the consti- 
tution by New York was unconditional; but I fear 
from the circular letter therefrom much disquietude 
may succeed in those States where the majorities are 
not large. I expect that letter will be eagerly caught 
by Mr. P. Henry, who in our next assembly will be 
greatly an overmatch for any Federalist ihat I know 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 41 

In the same. I trust there are a majority of Feder- 
ahsts in the House, who I hope will firmly withstand 
the artful intrigues of designing men; but there are 
instances of the most heroic conduct being defeated 
for want of a competent commander. Such an one I 
fear we have not in our House of Delegates. 

"I have carefully perused the numbers of the 
Federalist, and am happy to say the arguments 
therein contained are sufficiently satisfactory to my 
mind, and must carry conviction to every candid 
reader. We are all in quiet at present; there ap- 
pears to be little or no opposition from the Antis. 
I have been informed they are generally pretty well 
satisfied, but I rather think their conduct is intended 
to lull the friends to the new government into a state 
of security, and then in the fall to make a violent 
attack. I am sorry to find New York is, as the Vir- 
ginia Convention, against the power of direct taxa- 
tion, without which I fear, nay, I am certain, the 
most apparent evils will ensue. To form a govern- 
ment without such a necessary power would be nearly 
as ridiculous as for such a government to send per- 
sons to transact business of importance, far distant, 
without the sufficient sum of money to enable such 
persons to make good their journey, and thereby to 
obtain requisitions from those who were not com- 
pelled to assist. Should such an amendment take 
place, the long and glorious endeavors of our patriots 
will be of little or far less beneficial consequences, 
than their unwearied attention for the interests of 
America merited. 

"The conduct of North Carolina you have seen. 
Should they be fortunate enough to be seconded by 
Rhode Island, from their local situation, their knowl- 
edge in political science, and numbers, the eleven 
Confederate States have everything to fear. Good 
God! What can they promise themselves? Being 
the consumers of two importing States, and so unable 
to stand upon their own ground, I should have 



42 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

thought they would have greedily caught the Union. 
It is reported that Mr. Henry has influenced their 
councils considerably since the rising of our conven- 
tion, of the truth of which I have not sufficient 
knowledge. 

"I had the pleasure of seeing your Father and 
most of your friends the last week, who are all well. 

"It will be a matter of satisfaction to your friends 
in this State to know whether you wish to be in the 
Senate or in the House of Representatives in Con- 
gress so soon as the districts are laid out. I hope 
there will be care taken not to send to Congress those 
who are inimical to the Constitution. I shall ever 
esteem it a singular favor to receive any intelligence 
from you, and your advice upon any subject will be 
an additional obligation on, dear sir, your sincere 
friend and affectionate humble servant, 

James Gordon, Junr." 

The writer's apprehension of Patrick Henry's 
influence in the General Assembly of Virginia, which 
met in the following October, was justified by events. 
Two-thirds of its members were "Antis," opposed to 
the new Constitution. The election of Senators from 
Virginia was one of the duties of this Assembly; and 
Henry's efforts to defeat Madison for the Senator- 
ship were successful. William Grayson and Richard 
Henry Lee were elected Virginia's first Senators 
under the new Federal Constitution, upon the nomi- 
nation of Henry; although Mr. Madison was the 
sole candidate presented by those on the side of the 
Constitution. 

The result of the Senatorial election in the General 
Assembly failed to disturb Madison. His original 
preference had been for a seat in the House of Rep- 
resentatives; and he became a candidate in a district 
composed of the counties of Amherst, Albemarle, 
Louisa, Orange, Culpeper, Spottsylvania, Gooch- 
land and Fluvanna. Madison charged in a letter to 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 43 

Mr. Jefferson that this district had been "gerry- 
mandered," as such a process is now known, in that 
only one of the seven counties composing the district, 
besides his own, had given an undivided vote in the 
convention for the Constitution. Madison said in 
this letter to Jefferson, that Henry, after compassing 
his defeat for the Senate, had "taken equal pains, in 
forming the counties into districts for the election of 
representatives, to associate with Orange such as are 
most devoted to his politics, and most likely to be 
swayed by the prejudices excited against me." 

"The device of gerrymandering," comments Madi- 
son's biographer, Mr. Rives, "would thus seem not 
to have the origin its name imports, and which com- 
mon fame assigns it, but to have been first put in 
practice, though ineffectually, by the great Virginia 
orator and tribune, against Mr. Madison in the first 
election of representatives under the Constitution." 

After casting about and considering Mr. Strother 
and Mr. William Cabell, the elder, the "Antis" 
finally settled on James Monroe as the opposing can- 
didate. Mr. Madison arrived In Virginia from New 
York about the close of December, and the election 
took place on the following 2d of February; and a 
number of political discussions, a divertisement which 
to the present day has been the delight of the Vir- 
ginia voters, ensued between the candidates. The 
election resulted in the choice of Mr. Madison by a 
decided majority. 

Mr. Rives says: "Mr. Madison often gave a 
graphic and amusing account of a discussion which 
took place between him and Mr. Monroe, in the 
open air, on a cold January day, amid the bleak hills 
of Culpeper. They addressed the people in the face 
of a keen northeasterly wind, from the portico of a 
Lutheran meeting-house, after the close of the reli- 
gious services of the day; with which the grave and 
solemn Import of the question discussed to the future 
destinies of the country was supposed to be not out of 



44 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

keeping. Such was the extremity of the cold, that 
Mr. Madison's ear was sHghtly frost-bitten while 
speaking. Some traces of the injury always re- 
mained; and he would playfully point to them as the 
honorable scars he had borne from the battlefield. 
It is gratifying to know, that this brief political cam- 
paign was not attended with any interruption of the 
personal cordiality of the parties. In writing a few 
weeks afterwards to Mr. Jefferson, the common 
friend of both, Mr. Madison says: 'It gives me 
great pleasure to inform you, that the friendship of 
Monroe and myself has not Ijeen affected in any de- 
gree, by our late political opposition.' " 

In "The Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, 
1792," written by Miss Lucy Lee, which preserves 
a very sprightly and vivid picture of the social life of 
the period in the new Commonwealth, frequent men- 
tion is made of the Gordons of Germanna, In whose 
hospitable home the writer appears to have been a 
welcome guest. 

"Mr. James Gordon," says the fair diarist, "is 
come from Chatham. Mrs. Fitzhugh has sent me a 
very pressing invitation to go there this evening, and 
to-morrow to the races; but I have not the smallest 
inclination, and shall not go. This Mr. Gordon is a 
mighty clever man, — I wish you could see him." 

This vivacious journal was composed for the 
benefit of a young girl friend of the author's; and 
contains In Its many passages concerning Germanna 
and Its residents a number of Interesting references to 
"old Mrs. Gordon," widow of John of Richmond, 
who had come to Orange to reside with her son 
James, after his father's death, and to the other 
members of the family. At the time of Miss Lee's 
Inscription in her diary of the arrival of "Mr. James 
Gordon" from Chatham, that well-known seat of the 
FItzhughs In Virginia was the residence of William 
Fitzhugh, grandfather of the wife of General Robert 
E. Lee. William Fitzhugh at a later date removed 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 45 

to Ravensworth, in Fairfax County, which after- 
wards became the home of General WilHam Henry 
Fitzhugh Lee, the second son of General Robert E. 
Lee. William Fitzhugh, of Chatham, and of 
Ravensworth, was a man of singular nobility of char- 
acter and fine sense; and was so greatly admired and 
beloved by James Gordon that the latter named for 
him the subject of this biography, his second son, 
William Fitzhugh Gordon. The latter was accus- 
tomed to say that he had once asked his father, when 
he was a lad, why it was that he had named each of 
his three brothers after the Churchills, — John 
Churchill, Armistead Churchill, and Thomas 
Churchill, — and had named him Fitzhugh; and that 
his father had replied to him with an appearance of 
deep feeling, which left its lasting impression: "My 
son, if you shall emulate the virtues and the life of 
the man for whom I have named you, there will 
never be need for you to regret that you failed to 
have a different name." 

James Gordon, of Orange, appears from the re- 
cords of Orange, Spottsylvania and Culpeper coun- 
ties, to have been a large landed proprietor, owning 
various tracts in those counties, aggregating several 
thousand acres. Among them in described "a cer- 
tain tract or parcel of land lying in the lower end of 
Orange County, being a part of the tract of land 
originally sold by General Alexander Spotswood to 
Mr. Peter Conway, containing by State survey 652 
acres"; and another tract in Spottsylvania, which is 
described, in a deed from General Llenry Lee 
("Lighthorse Harry"), and Ann Lee his wife to 
James Gordon, named therein as "of Culpeper," as 
"531 acres, with all Houses, Buildings, Gardens, 
Orchards, Woods, underwoods, ways, waterways, 
profits, easements, advantages, hereditaments and 
appurtenances whatsoever to the said land belong- 
ing" — a description which would seem to character- 
ize the leisure, the perspicuity and the picturesque- 



46 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

ness of the times, when compared with the usual de- 
scription in the average conveyance of lands in this 
more prosaic and hurrying day. 

James Gordon died intestate in the prime of life, 
aged forty, at his home at Germanna, on Saturday, 
December 14, 1799 — a day piously and patriotically 
remembered and commemorated by his children and 
descendants as that on which also occurred the death 
of the Father of his Country, General George Wash- 
ington. His public career consisted solely, as has 
been stated, in his service in the General Assembly 
of Virginia and in the Convention of 1788; but it is 
interesting to observe that his descendants and those 
of his uncle, Colonel James Gordon, of Lancaster, 
have been prominent members of, or connected in an 
official capacity vAth every constitutional convention, 
save one, which has ever sat in Virginia. His first 
cousin and brother-in-law, James Gordon the second, 
of Lancaster, was a member of the Convention of 
1776, which framed Virginia's first written constitu- 
tion; and also represented that county in the Con- 
vention of 1788, where he advocated the cause of 
Henry and the "Antis." William Fitzhugh Gordon 
was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1829-30; and his son and namesake William Fitz- 
hugh Gordon, Jr., was one of the secretaries of the 
Constitutional Convention held in the city of Rich- 
mond in 1 86 1, which adopted the Ordinance of 
Secession, and was the special emissary of the conven- 
tion who conveyed the official copy of that tre- 
mendous document to Jefferson Davis, President of 
the Confederate States, at Montgomery, Alabama. 
Again, in 1868, when the carpetbaggers and scala- 
wags in Virginia gathered at Richmond, after the 
close of the War between the States, to reconstruct 
what had been the Commonwealth, and was then 
"Military District Number One," by framing a new 
constitution that would be acceptable to the powers 
at Washington, a great grandson of Colonel James 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 47 

Gordon, of Lancaster, the honorable Joseph Addison 
Waddell, of Augusta County, was one of a small but 
devoted band of patriots in the "Black and Tan" 
Convention, who sought to stem the tide of ignorance 
and hatred. In the restored and revitalized State, 
its latest Constitutional Convention assembled in 
Richmond in 1901 to amend and alter the constitu- 
tion of the "Black and Tan" gathering; and in that 
body's one hundred members were numbered three 
descendants of the two emigrant brothers from 
Newry — one of them, James Gordon Waddell, a 
great-great-grandson of Colonel James Gordon, of 
Lancaster, representing the city of Richmond, and the 
other two, great grandsons of James Gordon, of 
Orange, namely, Reuben Lindsay Gordon, represent- 
ing the county of Louisa, and \Villiam Gordon Rob- 
ertson, representing the city and county of Roanoke. 
In the county of his adoption the memory of 
James Gordon, of Orange, is preserved m the desig- 
nation of one of its four magisterial districts, the 
other three of which bear the historic names of Madi- 
son, of Barbour, and of Taylor. 



CHAPTER III 

EARLY LIFE 

Soon after the death of his father, William Fitz- 
hugh Gordon, who was born at Germanna, January 
13, 1787, and was the second son of his parents, was 
sent to the neighboring town of Fredericksburg to 
learn the mercantile business in the store of a thrifty 
Scotch merchant there. He was then in his thir- 
teenth year. His father, notwithstanding his large 
landed possessions, had died, as has been stated, leav- 
ing his estate more or less embarassed; and there 
was no ready money available for a college education 
of the lad, besides whom there were three other boys 
and two girls in the family. He had attended a 
neighborhood "old-field school" in his father's life- 
time, where "reading, writing and arithmetic" were 
taught; and of these elementary branches he had 
acquired a very good knowledge. His lines fell in 
profitable, if not pleasant places, however, in his 
association with the Fredericksburg Scotchman, who 
was a man of intelligence and education; and form- 
ing an attachment for his young clerk, in whom he 
perceived the promise of capacity and industry, this 
gentleman himself directed, as best he could, the 
boy's education during the time that he remained 
with him. After several years thus spent in Freder- 
icksburg, during which he applied himself closely 
both to his business and his books, young Gordon se- 
cured a position as a school teacher, and conducted a 
school for one or more sessions, until he could make 
and save enough money to pay his way in a good 
classical academy. At this time his cousin, James 
Gordon Waddell, son of "the Blind Preacher," was 
conducting a school for boys and young men at 
Spring Hill, just across the road from Hopewell, the 



WILLIAiM FITZHUGH GORDON 49 

residence of the "old man eloquent," near the town 
of Gordonsville. Gordon entered his cousin's school, 
and lived in the meantime in the house of Dr. Wad- 
dell, paying his board and tuition with the money 
which he had earned for the purpose. For the mem- 
bers of this family he always afterwards cherished 
and manifested a devoted affection; and his admira- 
tion for the goodness of "the Blind Preacher" was 
as lively as that which he entertained for his ora- 
torical ability. He was accustomed in after years to 
speak of the time which he spent at Hopewell as one 
of the most valuable, as it was one of the pleasantest 
periods of his life; and to say that he cared for none 
of his relatives more than he did for his Waddell 
kin. 

After attending the Spring Hill academy for two 
sessions, he left it with a knowledge of the Greek and 
Latin classics that was unexcelled by that of any 
youth in the school — an accomplishment which was 
doubtless due no less to the fine classical acquirements 
and skillful instruction of his preceptor, who was a 
cultured and highly educated man, than to the boy's 
own natural aptitude and industry as a student. 

When he was in his twentieth year he returned to 
Fredericksburg; and having determined to pursue 
the profession of the law, he obtained a position as 
law-clerk in the office of General Benjamin Botts, 
who not only paid him for the services which he 
rendered, but directed and assisted him in his legal 
studies. This method of combining the study of law 
with the acquisition of a practical knowledge of the 
profession was a favorite one with those young men 
of the day who proposed to become lawyers; and 
many of the ablest attorneys in Virginia of Gordon's 
generation never crossed the threshold of any regu- 
larly constituted law-school. He could have had no 
more efficient or interested counsellor and friend than 
General Botts, who was himself one of the leading 



50 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

lawyers of his day in the Commonwealth, and whom 
the attractive personality and evident ability and 
purpose of his young clerk impressed, as they had at 
an earlier date impressed the Scotch merchant. Gor- 
don during this period attended the sessions of the 
courts which met in Fredericksburg, and saw cases 
tried and heard arguments presented by many dis- 
tinguished members of the Virginia bar, which in 
that day had on its roster the names of men who were 
famous the country over for legal knowledge and 
forensic talents. 

It was during his stay in General Botts's office that 
the celebrated trial of Aaron Burr for treason took 
place in Richmond. The preliminary examination 
of Burr was had before Chief Justice Marshall, and 
was conducted by Czesar Rodney, the Attorney-Gen- 
eral of the United States, and George Hay, the 
United States attorney for the Federal District of 
Virginia, John Wickham and Edmund Randolph ap- 
pearing as counsel for Burr. Burr was sent on to the 
Federal grand jury, of which John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, was foreman, and was admitted to bail. 
When the case came on for trial on the indictment 
found, Rodney had withdrawn as counsel for the 
prosecution, and William Wirt and Mr. McCrae as- 
sisted Mr. Hay; while General Botts and Mr. Baker 
appeared with Messrs. Wickham and Randolph for 
the prisoner. Both prosecution and defense were 
conducted in a manner noteworthy not only in politi- 
cal history but in the history of legal trials, as one of 
the most famous that has ever occurred in America. 
The verdict of the jury was: "We of the jury say 
that Aaron Burr is not proved to be guilty under this 
indictment by any evidence submitted to us. We 
therefore find him not guilty." 

Gordon remained in General Botts' office about 
two years, making the most of his time in study and 
observation, but not neglecting in the meanwhile the 
acquisition of another branch of knowledge, which 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 51 

was as essential to the success of the young practi- 
tioner in Virginia as that of Coke on Littleton. Lie 
mingled with the society of the able men and accom- 
plished women for which the town of Fredericksburg 
at that time was especially noted, and while studying 
human nature, at the same time enhanced those at- 
tractions of manner and bearing, and d.'veloped the 
natural powers of conversation which throughout his 
subsequent career made his society eagerly courted by 
all with v/hom he became acquainted. He possessed 
a natural gift of oratory, which he cultivated by ex- 
ercise as occasion presented itself; and having at 
length been licensed to practice law, he was admitted 
to the bar in 1808, and opened an office at Orange 
Court House, where he at once took a prominent 
position among the members of the junior bar. In 
1809, regarding Charlottesville, the county-seat of 
the adjoining county of Albemarle, as a more advan- 
tageous location, and one affording a larger field of 
opportunity, he removed thither; and from that time 
up to his retirement from practice, was one of the 
most prominent of the members of his profession in 
the county. Llis taste for speaking soon attracted to 
him the attention of those who were interested in 
local politics; and within three years after he settled 
in Charlottesville, while yet in his twenty-fifth year, 
he was made Commionwealth's Attorney for the 
county. The bar of Albemarle at that time was 
especially strong in the ability and acquirements of 
the lawyers who constituted it. Among them were 
Dabney Carr, a nephew of Jefferson, who later be- 
came chancellor, and a distinguished Judge of the 
Supreme Court of the State; Joseph J. Monroe, a 
brother of the President, who was Dabney Carr's 
successor, and Gordon's immediate predecessor, in 
the office of Commonwealth's Attorney; John S. 
Barbour, later legislator, congressman, member of 
the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829-30, 
and able exponent of the State-Rights repubhcanism 



52 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

of the period in the halls of the Federal Congress; 
Valentine W. Southall and Richard H. Field, who 
are remembered as among the great Virginia lawyers 
of the past. It was a notable honor thus conferred 
upon so youthful and recent a comer; for the office, 
highly responsible and dignified always in itself 
throughout Virginia, has been, from the very founda- 
tion of the county, down to the present time, espec- 
ially esteemed by the people of Albemarle, who have 
been proud to see among the fourteen lawyers who 
have held it since 1783, in addition to Carr, Monroe 
and Gordon, men so eminent in the profession in 
their generations as Valentine W. Southall, William 
J. Robertson, R. T. W. Duke, Egbert R. Watson 
and Micajah Woods. The prosecution of criminal 
cases, however, did not appeal to Gordon's tastes or 
inclinations; and he resigned the office before he had 
served out his first term. From that time on, during 
a period of several years, and until he became en- 
grossed in the active pursuit of politics, he devoted 
himself assiduously to the general practice; and his 
services were especially sought after for the defence 
of criminal cases, where his combination of legal 
knowledge with ability as an advocate made him 
unusually strong. During this period of his life he 
was a diligent student of his profession as a science, 
and laid the foundations of a broad acquaintance 
with the principles of jurisprudence and the methods 
of procedure which made him an almost invincible 
opponent in the trial of a litigated law case; and gave 
him at once, both upon his entering the Virginia 
House of Delegates, and the United States House 
of Representatives, positions upon their respective 
Judiciary Committees. In these positions, as herein- 
after detailed, he left the permanent impress of his 
knowledge and his ability upon the legislation both 
of the Commonwealth and of the Republic. 

A close personal friendship had long existed 
between Gordon and James Barbour, later highly 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 53 

distinguished as Secretary of War in the Cabinet of 
President John Quincy Adams, and as Minister to the 
Court of St. James. He was a son of Colonel 
Thomas Barbour, who had been one of the "Anti" 
candidates for the convention of 1788 against Mr. 
Madison and James Gordon; and acquired a knowl- 
edge of law while serving as deputy-sheriff. He was 
admitted to the bar at the age of nineteen; and two 
years later was elected to the House of Delegates, 
where he served sixteen years, when he was chosen 
Governor. After a term as Governor he was elected 
to the United States Senate; and in 1837 presided 
over the Whig Convention at Harrisburg, which 
nominated General Harrison for the Presidency. 
Although Barbour was twelve years Gordon's senior, 
a strong personal intimacy existed between them, 
which despite their political separation some years 
prior to the former's death in 1842, remained unin- 
terrupted to the end. 

On January 21, 18 12, we find Barbour, who had a 
few days before entered upon his term as Governor, 
writing from Richmond the following intimate and 
ingenuous letter to his friend Gordon : 

"Dear Gordon: I received your letter of this 
month some days past, and in the cant of public men 
must tell you that I should forthwith have answered 
it but for the pressure of important business. Be- 
lieve me, my good friend, the sentiments of affection 
it breathed were precious to my soul. What in this 
life can equal that pleasure which arises from the 
communion of friendly souls? If it gives new and 
vivid coloring to prosperity, it also blunts the arrow 
of misfortune. Whether then my doom shall be one 
or the other, let me always have this solace. And I 
feel an indescribable evidence that the cord of sym- 
pathy and affection between you and me will not 
easily be severed. 

"I have entered upon a new and untried path. 



54 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

What may be the result is left to all-trying time. 
My eye is steadfastly fixed upon the prosperity of my 
country, for which I may say to my friends no man 
has a more ardent attachment. My errors, as I ap- 
prehend there will be many, by all who know me will 
be placed to their true cause, in which they know my 
heart will have no share. 

"I rejoice that there is a fair field presented to you 
for reaping profit and renown in your professional 
career. I do not mean to flatter when I tell you that 
you have the seeds of success. They only want culti- 
vation, and I pray God that you may not thwart the 
bounty of nature. And I must tell you, not to puff 
you, that this opinion is not the partiality of a friend, 
but I have heard it from those who are capable of 
judging, and who towards you are impartial. 

"I had indulged a hope when I retired from the 
bar that I should have been able to give you a sub- 
stantial evidence of my friendship by inviting you to 
take under your care all my business. But I have 
just been advised by my pupil, John S. Barbour, of 
his determination to commence practice in the courts 
of Albemarle and Orange. From circumstances 
which a feeling heart can at once recognize, his 
claims are paramount to any other; and I am sure 
that you will at once duly appreciate the motives that 
influence me, and the frankness of this information. 

"The House of Delegates have to-d;:y passed a 
law dividing the transmontane district into four, a 
new judge to be appointed, and one to attend two dis- 
tricts. What will be its fate is uncertain, as great 
doubts are entertained in the Senate. An increase of 
the banking capital in this State, to the amount of 
three million dollars in the aggregate, is likely also 
to pass the same body, and the result of the question 
is equally uncertain, as it has to pass the Senate also. 

"No doubt seems to be entertained here but that 
war is inevitable. The late Presidential message 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON SS 

seems to indicate a determined spirit of hostility on 
the part of Great Britain. 

"As to the question you propound of the legal rep- 
resentative of the much lamented Botts, you have no 
doubt seen the advertisement of G. Minor, which 
has already advised you that he is to transact his 
business. 

"I am, with sentiments of friendship, yours, 

"James Barbour. 

"Mr. D. Carr has been excluded to-day by P. 
Randolph by a majority of 22. — J. B." 

On the 26th of the month preceding the date of 
Governor Barbour's letter to Gordon a public 
calamity of extraordinary character took place in 
Richmond. The Richmond Theatre, at which were 
assembled an audience of six hundred persons to 
witness a new drama, for the benefit of Placide, a 
favorite actor, which was to be succeeded by the 
pantomime of "The Bleeding Nun," was burned 
with great loss of life. "The wild legend," says Mr. 
Howison, in his "History of Virginia," "on which 
this spectacle was founded, had lost none of its 
power under the pen of Monk Lewis, and even in 
pantomime it had awakened great interest. The 
regular piece had been played; the pantomime had 
commenced; already the curtain had risen upon its 
second act, when sparks of fire were seen to fall from 
the scenery on the back part of the stage. A moment 
after, Mr. Robertson, one of the actors, ran for- 
ward, and waving his hand towards the ceiling, 
called aloud 'The house is on fire!' " In the tumult 
that ensued the flames spread with great rapidity, 
and the loss of life was appalling. Many sought to 
save themselves by leaping from windows and thus 
perished; while a larger number were lost in the 
flames. Among the dead, who aggregated nearly a 
hundred, were George W. Smith, the Governor of 
Virginia, and General Benjamin Botts, Gordon's 



56 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

friend and law preceptor, who, having escaped from 
the burning building, re-entered it to rescue his wife 
and niece, both of whom perished with him. 

Soon after Gordon's admission to the bar, and 
while residing in Orange, he married, on the 21st day 
of December, 1809, Mary Robinson Rootes, of 
"Federal Hill," Fredericksburg, a daughter of 
Thomas Reade Rootes, in whose hospitable mansion, 
which still remains one of the "show-places" of the 
old town, he had been a frequent and welcome guest 
during the period of his legal apprenticeship in Gen- 
eral Botts' office. With every prospect of a life of 
happiness in her union to one of sympathy and de- 
votion, whose abilities, associations and energies even 
then gave promise of his subsequent distinguished 
career, she survived the marriage but little more than 
a year, and died in January, 181 1, in the bloom of 
lovely young womanhood. Her younger sister, 
Sarah Robinson Rootes, married John Addison 
Cobb, who moved to Georgia, and was the mother of 
Howell Cobb and Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb ; the 
former of whom was Speaker of the United States 
House of Representatives, Governor of Georgia, 
Secretary of the Treasury under President Buchanan, 
and Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederacy, 
and a major-general in the Confederate States Army 
in the War between the States; and the latter, one of 
the most brilliant and distinguished lawyers of the 
Georgia bar, and a brigadier-general in the Confed- 
erate Army, who was killed in battle, in 1862, at 
Fredericksburg, in sight of the old house of "Federal 
Hill," in which his mother had been born and reared. 

In January, 18 13, and while living in Charlottes- 
ville, Gordon married his second wife, who was 
thenceforward the companion of his own long life, 
and who survived him many years, dying in the latter 
part of the nineteenth century at the advanced age of 
ninety-five. She was Elizabeth Lindsay, the daughter 
of Colonel Reuben Lindsay, a wealthy merchant 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 57 

and planter of Albemarle, a colonel in the ser- 
vice of the colonies during the period of the Revolu- 
tion, and a personal friend and intimate of Mr. Jef- 
ferson, Mr. Madison and Mr. Monroe. This inti- 
macy and friendship was a long-continued and lasting 
one; and we find in the first letter written by Gor- 
don to his wife from the Constitutional Convention 
of 1829-30, of which the two last named venerable 
cx-Presidents were members, that he conveys from 
them to Colonel Lindsay a message of esteem. "Tell 
your father," he writes, "that Mr. Madison and Mr. 
Monroe both inquired after his health; and that 
theirs is improving." 

Mrs. Gordon was a woman of great force of char- 
acter, of unusual intelligence, of marked cultivation 
and literary acquirements, and of devoted though 
unostentatious piety. At the time of their marriage 
Gordon had already attracted the attention of Mr. 
Jefferson, who had then retired to private life at 
Monticello, after a nearly continuous public service 
of forty-four years; and this union of the youthful 
lawyer with the daughter of one of his valued friends 
served to bring the younger man and the older into 
those closer relations of admiration and veneration 
on the one hand, and of confidence and esteem on 
the other, which contributed in no small degree to 
inducing Gordon at a later period to become a candi- 
date for the General Assembly, when Mr. Jefferson 
was most actively urging before the legislature the 
creation of one of the noblest monuments of his 
genius, the University of Virginia. Elizabeth Lind- 
say, in her girlhood and young womanhood, had 
formed such an association and companionship with 
Mr. Jefferson's daughters, who later became Mrs. 
Randolph and Mrs. J. W. Eppes, as often grows up 
between young women of sympathetic feelings and 
congenial tastes; and she frequently visited the 
family at Monticello. Among the many interesting 
reminiscences which brightened her later years was 



58 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

one which she regarded as very illustrative of the 
systematic utilization of time by Mr. Jefferson. She 
said she had observed that there was always a vol- 
ume of some sort on the mantel-shelf of the dining- 
room at Monticello, from which, whenever she en- 
tered the room at meal times, she almost always 
found him reading, while he stood near the fire-place, 
waiting for famiily and guests to assemble. The cir- 
cumstance interested her so much that she ventured 
to inquire of him why he should read standing, and 
at such brief and unusual moments. He replied that 
he had always sought to cultivate punctuality, a vir- 
tue that did not consistently characterize so large a 
household as his; and that by economizing the wait- 
ing moments, he had found leisure to read, as she 
had seen him reading, a very large number of books, 
the perusal of which he might otherwise have been 
forced to forego. 

Of Mrs. Gordon's unselfish devotion to her hus- 
band during their long union perhaps no more char- 
acteristic illustration can be given than in her con- 
duct at the time of the burning of their dwelling- 
house in Albemarle, during his absence in Washing- 
tion in the session of the last Congress of which he 
was a member. She was aware of the engrossing 
attention which the public business demanded of him, 
for he was then especially busy with his Sub-Treasury 
plan; and she wished to convey to him with as little 
shock as possible the news of the calamity which had 
thus befallen them. She wrote February 15, 1835, 
from her father's home at Springfield : 

"We are all well. I heard from our dear little 
boys since I wrote last to you. They were in fine 
health and spirits. These are blessings to be thank- 
ful for; and now, my dear husband, when I tell you 
your manuscript papers and books are safe, I hope 
you will not suffer yourself to be much agitated, 
when I add that our house is burned. Most of the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 59 

furniture of the lower rooms Is saved. The gu^ls lost 
all their clothing of every description, except a few 
trifles and what they had on. The first feeling of 
my heart was deep and fervent gratitude to God for 
having preserved us from the accident happening in 
the night. I shudder to think what sorrow we might 
then have had; but all my children are now safe, 
and I am perfectly resigned to any inconveniences we 
may have to encounter. Imust mention to you that 
we are indebted to Mr. Provost, the young gentle- 
man who lives at Mr. Rives', for the saving of all 
that was saved. He called at our house that day. 
Maria Walker was with me. Dinner was ready soon 
after. While at dinner in the cellar, a spark caught 
the roof from the chimney. No one observed At, 
until a large part of it was in a blaze, and the wind 
blowing violently. All the servants except Harry 
lost all presence of mind; and Mr. Provost and 
himself got most of the things out. I asked him to 
save your papers and books first; and went in myself 
and seized your likeness, when I found Reuben puU- 
mg me out of the house. Reuben and William be- 
haved like heroes. They were quite collected and 
helped to get out a great many things. All our neigh- 
bors crowded to our assistance, black and white, — 
but before any men got there, it was impossible to 
enter the house. 

"You know how often I have told you that my 
courage always rises to meet the occasion. I am per- 
fectly composed. You must think of us as on a visit 
to our dear affectionate mother and sister, happy to 
know that we are all safe. If your public duties 
make it important for you to stay from us till the 
close of the session, do so. I will write to you 
every post. All I beg, my dear husband, is that you 
will not risk your health or safety in coming while 
the ice is on the river. I told Cousin Lewis last night 
that I should write to cheer you, and beg you not to 
forsake the standard of old Virginia's principles for 



6o WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

a paltry fire. There is not a man in the district that 
can be elected to support them now, but yourself; 
and perhaps it will be an effort congenial with your 
spirit to rise above this misfortune, I have no doubt 
or fear but we shall all be comfortable again. The 
girls beg me to ask you, if the silks are not purchased, 
not to get them, or anything for them but plain and 
neat clothing, such as gingham, cambric, calico. If 
you have bought plates and dishes, perhaps you 
would better sell them again. 

"Now again let me beg of you to take care of your 
own health, and don't venture on the ice. When I 
see you and my children together again I shall be the 
happiest woman in the world. All send love to you 
more than I can express, and may God bless and pre- 
serve you. 

"Ever your affectionate wife, 

"E. L. Gordon. 

"Don't think this blotted sheet the effect of agita- 
tion. I write with a bad pen and my hand very cold." 

His courage was as lofty as hers. He met her 
message with a serene optimism that was the counter- 
part of her own : 

"Washington, 17 February, 1835. 

"My dear Wife: I have just received your letter, 
communicating the loss of our dwelling-house. I 
have felt a good deal in sympathy with you and my 
dear children; but, thank God, you are all safe. 
The inconvenience of our loss is more than its value. 
The house was an indifferent one, and intrinsically 
worth but little, save as having been our habitation 
through many years. Its destruction produces a 
mournful feeling. 

"I shall procure the girls some new clothing. I 
have determined not to leave my post here, until just 
before the adjournment. Perhaps I may be at March 
Court. I do not know that I could render any 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 6i 

peculiar service by coming sooner; and I do not wish 
to give to my political adversaries any subject of 
criticism. 

"I am pleased at your account of the bearing of 
Reuben and William during the fire. I hope that 
they will be brave and virtuous men. 

"I communicated our misfortune to my friend, 
Mr. Robertson. He says you ought to be pleased, as 
I shall be compelled to build you a new house. You 
must think of this. I am afraid that you will crowd 
your mother very much, but I know it will afford her 
pleasure to shelter you under the circumstances. 

"I hope the overseer will not relax his efforts for a 
crop; and that you will compose yourself as much as 
you can. I shall soon be with you ; and perhaps our 
accident will turn out a blessing. It will arouse me to 
greater exertion and economy; but I feel it sensibly 
to have a houseless family at so inclement a season, 
and to be absent from them. 

"It is not in my nature to grieve at mere pecuniary 
loss, and but for the sufferings of you and my dear 
children I should be very composed. My health 
never was better. The mess, and the family of Mrs. 
McDaniel expressed great concern for our loss. 
Mrs. McDaniel very generously offered to loan me 
all her spare money to assist me in building. The 
little kindness I have shown to her and her family, 
in helping them to make and keep their mess, has 
made them my very sincere friends. The girls send 
their love and sympathy for you. I shall get them to 
procure for M. and LI. several new dresses, &c. 

"Affectionately and sincerely yours, 

"Wm. F. Gordon." 

The house thus destroyed in February, 1835, was 
not without an interesting history. When Gordon 
married Mary Rootes, her father, who was a man 
of wealth, had purchased for the young couple a farm 
in the vicinity of Orange Court House, the village 



62 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

where he first opened a law-office for practice; and 
they lived on their farm for the short period of their 
married life, during which he combined, after the 
custom of the Virginia country lawyer of the period, 
the avocation of the gentleman-farmer with the voca- 
tion of the practising lawyer. Upon the early death 
of his first wife, with the highmindedness and fine 
sense of right which always characterized him, he 
re-conveyed to her relatives the farm which had thus 
come to him from her father, although at the time 
he was possessed of little worldly gear, and well un- 
derstood the value of its possession in beginning the 
battle of life. He left Orange about this time, and 
settled at Charlottesville. Here for a long period, 
interrupted after his second marriage by a tem- 
porary sojourn at Springfield, the home of his father- 
in-law. Colonel Lindsay, he continued to reside, and 
to practice his profession, meanwhile "riding the cir- 
cuit" in attendance on the courts held in Orange and 
Louisa, as well as those of Albemarle, until in 1825, 
when he purchased from Nathaniel Ragland the 
property on the south side of the Southwest Moun- 
tains, near the town of Gordonsville, the destruction 
of the dwelling-house on which has been described in 
one of the foregoing letters. 

The farm and dwelling had in colonial times con- 
stituted "The Glebe" of Fredericksville parish, in 
Albemarle. Its first occupant as glebe property was 
the Reverend James Maury, for whom, says Bishop 
Meade in "Old Churches, Ministers and Families of 
Virginia," "soon after he settled in the parish a good 
glebe of four hundred acres was purchased, near 
Captain Lindsay's, and a parsonage built, which with 
the outhouses and other improvements, seem during 
his life to have been well attended to by the vestry." 
It may be noted that in 1763, when the parish was 
divided into Trinity in Louisa County, and Freder- 
icksville in Albemarle, by an act of Assembly, the 
vestry of Fredericksville was ordered to pay two 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 63 

hundred pounds — half the price of their glebe — to 
the new vestry of Trinity for the purchase of a glebe. 
Here the Reverend James Maury, who was both 
rector and teacher of a small school, was succeeded by 
his son, Mr. Mathew Maury, who continued rector 
of Fredericksville parish until his death in 1808. 
The Reverend Mathew Maury also supplemented 
his meagre salary as an Episcopal minister by teaching 
a boys' classical school at "The Glebe;" and educated 
here a large number of the sons of prominent Vir- 
ginia families. Among his father's pupils was Mr. 
Jefferson, who attended the school as a lad, prior to 
entering the ancient college of William and Mary in 
Virginia, at Williamsburg. In his venerable old age, 
after the purchase by Gordon of "The Glebe," as a 
place of residence, Mr. Jefferson said jestingly to Mrs. 
Gordon, "My dear, do you know that you have got 
the Old Boy's room in your house?" and in response 
to her somewhat astonished query of his meaning, in- 
formed her that it was the room dedicated to the oc- 
cupancy of the older lads of Parson Maury's school. 
A nephew of the Reverend Ma:hew, and grandson 
of the Reverend James Maury, of "The Glebe," was 
Commodore Mathew Fontaine Maury, of great fame 
in the later history of the country for his scientific ca- 
reer, which earned for him the unique and illustrious 
title of "Pathfinder of the Seas." 

After the destruction of the old glebe house at 
Edgeworth by fire in 1835, Gordon built the com- 
miodious brick mansion now standing on the place, 
which has been described by a local chronicler as a 
"handsome brick structure, which is two stories in 
height, with double rooms and a wide hall on each 
floor, besides a large cellar;" and of which the fur- 
ther statement is made that "it formed at that date 
an imposing building, bein^ much superior to those 
of his neighbors, and its spacious apartments became 
the scene of a refined and elegant hospitality." 

Here he resided up to the time of his death. 



CHAPTER IV 

"the red hills of piedmont" 

Whatever may have been the relative architectural 
merits of Gordon's new house at Edgeworth and 
those of Its owner's neighbors, It is certain that at 
no period In the history of Colony or Commonwealth, 
and in no neighborhood characteristic of either, could 
there be found in Virginia a society more cultivated, 
refined and genteel than that composing the neigh- 
borhoods between the towns of Gordonsvllle and 
Charlottesville, along the base of the Southwest 
range of mountains. Beginning at the former place, 
then but a small country village, where later a town 
of some size grew up about the home of Nathaniel 
Gordon, an uncle of William FItzhugh Gordon, 
from whom It took Its name, situated upon a section 
of the eighteen hundred acres of land which he 
owned there, and traveling westward, one came 
successively to "Hopewell," the home of Gordon's 
uncle by marriage, "the Blind Preacher" Waddell, 
near the church in the wilderness, where William 
Wirt had seen him lift his sightless eyeballs to heaven, 
and tell with words of Inspired eloquence how 
"Socrates died like a philosopher, but Jesus Christ 
like a God." Near by were "Springfield" and "The 
Meadows," the homes of the Lindsays, of which 
family came Gordon's second wife; and in the im- 
mediate neighborhood was "Logan," then occupied 
by Captain Lewis Walker, of the distinguished 
family whose founder In Albemarle County was Dr. 
Thomas Walker, famous as a pioneer and explorer 
In Kentucky, and a diplomat In dealing with the 
Indian tribes of the western frontier. Dr. Walker 
was commissary-general of the troops under Wash- 
ington, who accompanied Braddock on his Ill-fated 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 6s 

expedition, and was present at his defeat. He served 
in the House of Burgesses and on the Committee of 
Safety, and was President of the commission to fix 
the boundary line between Virginia and North Caro- 
lina. He was Jefferson's guardian. By his mar- 
riage with the widow of Nicholas Meriwether he 
acquired "Castle-Hill," the home, at a subsequent 
date, of his relative, Mr. William C. Rives. One 
of Dr. Walker's daughters, Betsy, married the Rev- 
erend Mathew Maury, who taught school in the old 
Glebe house at Edgeworth. Another daughter, 
Lucy, was the wife of Dr. George Gilmer, of "Pen 
Park," and the mother of Mildred Gilmer, who mar- 
ried William Wirt, the author of "The British Spy," 
and Attorney-General of the United States. A 
grandson of Dr. George Gilmer and Lucy Walker 
was Governor Thomas Walker Gilmer, who was 
Secretary of the Navy in President Tyler's adminis- 
tration, and was killed by the explosion of a cannon 
on the steamer Princeton. During Gordon's life 
"Logan" continued the home of Captain Lewis Wal- 
ker, who was Gordon's brother-in-law, he having mar- 
ried Maria Lindsay, the sister of Mrs. Gordon. 
One of their sons was General Reuben Lindsay 
Walker, of the Confederate States Army. 

West of "Edgeworth" was "Keswick," the home 
of the Pages, whose history from colonial days to 
the present has adorned the annals of Virginia. 
During the period of this biography its owner was 
Dr. Mann Page, a distinguished physician of his 
day, who on his maternal side was a grandson of 
that Archibald Cary, known as "Old Iron," of 
whom It has been said by the historian of the Vir- 
ginia Convention of 1776, that when the scheme 
of a dictator for Virginia was talked of in the As- 
sembly at Williamsburg, and it was alleged that 
Patrick Henry's friends favored him for the office, 
"Cary met Colonel Syme, the half-brother of Henry 



6G WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

in the lobby of the house, and accosted him : Sir, I 
am told that your brother wishes to be dictator. 
Tell him from me, that the day of his appointment 
shall be the day of his death; for he shall find my 
dagger in his heart before the sunset of that day." 
Two of Dr. Page's grandsons, James Morris Page, 
and, Thomas Walker Page, are now prominent pro- 
fessors in the University of Virginia, the former 
being Dean of the Collegiate Department, after hav- 
ing filled the position of Chairman of the Faculty. ^ 

West of Keswick and nearer the mountain was 
"Castle Hill," during Gordon's life the home of 
Mr. William Cabell Rives. Mr, Rives was one of 
the most conspicuous figures in American politics in 
the first half of the nineteenth century. He was 
elected to Congress in 1822 as a Democrat, and 
after serving three terms was sent to France as 
Minister from the United States by President Jack- 
son. He succeeded Senator Tazewell in the Senate 
in 1832, where he was known as a "Conservative." 
He resigned in 1834, and was again elected Senator 
In 1835, holding the office till 1845. He was a 
prominent figure in the debates on the expunging 
resolutions and the Sub-Treasury scheme; and was 
again Minister to France in 1849. He was a pub- 
lic speaker and debater of great ability, and a scholar 
of varied culture. Among his other literary works 
was an elaborate "Life of James Madison." 

Mr. Rives, Dr. Page, and Gordon all had sons 
in their families; and under an arrangement partici- 
pated in by the three houses, a teacher was employed 
to whom these lads went to school ; and who taught, 
generally in turn, at Edgeworth, Keswick or Castle 
Hill. The annalist of the school states that Mr. 
Provost, whose helpful conduct at the burning of 
the Edgeworth house is described in Mrs. Gordon's 
letter to her husband, taught at Castle Hill in 
1835-36, and that he "was one of the best teachers." 
He naively adds that Mr. Provost "also courted all 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 67 

the marriageable girls in the neighborhood." These 
teachers were young men, who were graduates of 
Princeton, of Yale, of Bowdoin, of Harvard, and 
of the English Univ^ersities. George Jeffrey, of 
Cambridge University, taught at Keswick in 1843- 
1844, and at Edgeworth the following session. "It 
Vv^as about this time," writes the annalist, "that F. W. 
Meerbach, a famous German pianist, gave music- 
lessons to young ladies in the neighborhood. Mr. 
Jeffrey was a very eccentric man, and the two had 
a quarrel, resulting in Mr. Jeffrey's going next ses- 
sion to Edgeworth." Among the last teachers of 
the neighborhood, most of the boys having in the 
'mean time grown up, was Mr. Calvin S. Maupin, of 
North Carolina, who taught at Edgeworth. Of him 
the school-annalist writes: "Mr. Maupin was not a 
very literary mian, nor did he much enjoy conversa- 
tion at meals, being usually blessed with a -ravenous 
appetite. Thus, while General Gordon was telling 
some anecdote about President Jackson, while a 
member of Congress, Mr. Maupin interrupted him 
in the middle of the most interesting part by remark- 
ing, 'General, you got my bread!' " 

Next to Castle Hill, on the west, was "Kinloch," 
the home of the Meriwethers, a family v/hich gave 
to the country one of its most famous explorers in 
the person of Meriwether Lewis, the companion of 
Clark on the great "Oregon Trail." Of him Mr. 
Jefferson said: "He was courage undaunted, pos- 
sessing a firmness of purpose which nothing but im- 
possibilities could divert from its direction, and was 
intimate with Indian character, customs and princi- 
ples." Other distinguished members of this family 
were the two David Meriwethers, the elder of whom 
went to Georgia, where he attained prominence as 
a legislator and Congressman; and who was ap- 
pointed in 1804 by Mr. Jefferson a commissioner 
to treat with the Creeks, and also served with An- 
drew Jackson in making a treaty with the Cherokees. 



68 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

The younger David went to Kentucky, where he be- 
came a member of its Constitutional Convention of 
1849, later Speaker of its House of Representatives, 
and succeeding Henry Clay in the United States 
Senate in 1852, was afterwards territorial Governor 
of New Mexico. 

The occupant of "Kinloch," in Gordon's time was 
Dr. Thomas W. Meriwether, whose wife was a 
granddaughter of Governor Thomas Nelson, of 
Yorktown, and a daughter of Hugh Nelson, son of 
Thomas, upon whose death, in 1836, Kinloch came 
into the possession of Dr. Meriwether. Hugh Nel- 
son was among the most distinguished of the many 
distinguished men of this Piedmont section. He 
was Speaker of the House of Delegates in the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Virginia, and a judge of the Gen- 
eral Court. He was elected to Congress, where he 
served twelve years, when he resigned; and was then 
appointed United States Minister to Spain. 

Nelson's residence, however, was not at Kinloch, 
which was built by Dr. Meriwether, but at "Belvoir," 
near by. Nelson obtained the Belvoir estate by his 
marriage with Eliza Kinloch, only granddaughter of 
John Walker, the eldest son of Dr. Thomas Walker, 
of Castle Hill. John Walker of Belvoir served as 
"an extra-aide" on General Washington's staff dur- 
ing the Revolution; and in 1790 was a United States 
Senator, by executive appointment, succeeding Wil- 
liam Grayson. Walker's wife was Elizabeth Moore, 
granddaughter of Alexander Spotswood, Colonial 
Governor of Virginia, and founder of the "town" 
of Germanna, whose description by William Byrd, 
of Westover, has been given in a former chapter. 

Further west, in the direction of Charlottesville, 
stood "Belmont," the home of the Everetts, whose 
owner in the early decades of the nineteenth century 
was Dr. Charles Everett, a graduate in 1796 of the 
medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, 
who was at one time Gordon's colleague in the House 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 69 

of Delegates, later serving as private secretary to 
President James Monroe. 

Near Belmont was "Edgehill," the residence of Jef- 
ferson's son-in-law, Governor Thomas Mann Ran- 
dolph, He was a descendant of William Randolph 
of Turkey Island, the progenitor in Virginia of many 
distinguished men of the name who have adorned 
American history with the story of their civic 
achievements; and who was also the ancestor of Mr. 
Jefferson himself, and of General Robert E. Lee. 
Governor Randolph was educated at William and 
Mary College, and at the University of Edinburgh. 
He was a member of the Virginia Senate in 1793 
*ind 1794, and a representative in Congress from 
1803 to 1807. One of his biographers says of him: 
"During the War of 18 12 Mr. Randolph's ardent 
patriotism was conspicuous. He raised a command 
and gallantly participated in the engagements of the 
seaboard, and was soon promoted to lieutenant- 
colonel, and placed in command of the First Light 
Corps." He was Governor of Virginia from De- 
cember I, 1819, to December i, 1822. 

Gordon served under Colonel Randolph in the 
War of 18 12, first as a private, and then at head- 
quarters. His admiration for him was very 
great; and we find that his letters of the period, writ- 
ten home to his wife, contain frequent allusions to 
him. In 18 19 he was Gordon's colleague in the 
House of Delegates. 

"Colonel Randolph's election to be Governor of 
the State," wrote Gordon from Richmond, under 
date of December 16, 18 19, "has left me alone in 
the House of Delegates, and nothing but your per- 
sonal indisposition would justify my leaving the 
county entirely unrepresented. Colonel Randolph 
was elected with great honor to himself, as he had 
two competitors who were respectable." And again, 
December 23, 18 19: "The triumph of the friends 
of Colonel Randolph over the detractions of his 



70 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

enemies was indeed pleasing." After having served 
as Governor of the State, Colonel Randolph was 
again returned to the House of Delegates as Gor- 
don's colleague from Albemarle County. On De- 
cember 7, 1823, the latter writes to Mrs. Gordon: 
"I am boarding at the Eagle, where there are nearly 
sixty members of the Assembly. Mr. and Mrs. 
Loyall are near neighbors. Colonel Randolph 
boards only a little distance from me. He has lately 
returned from New York, and is delighted with the 
improvements of that great State. I am much pleased 
that he is in the Legislature. He is gaining friends 
every day and making the true impression which his 
science, intelligence and patriotism should always 
command; and but for that rash humor which his 
mother gave him might now have stood foremost in 
the ranks of those who, wanting nearly every quality 
which he possesses, are aspiring to the highest honors 
of the Confederacy. I feel proud that he is my 
friend, and count myself the better for never for one 
moment having neglected or abandoned him." An 
historic illustration of this fierce temper, to which 
Gordon alludes, was Thomas Mann Randolph's at- 
tack on his kinsman, John Randolph of Roanoke, in 
the closing scene of the Ninth Congress, when 
imagining that the latter had referred to him in 
objectionable language, he made a most violent and 
savage speech against John Randolph, that was only 
prevented by the intervention of friends from re- 
sulting in a physical collision. 

Hard by Edgehill was "Shadwell," the home of 
Peter Jefferson, surveyor and map-maker with 
Joshua Fry, and the birthplace of his illustrious son, 
Thomas Jefferson; while across the river, and in 
sight, stood "Monticello," on its eminence overlook- 
ing the red-watered river of the Rivanna, itself the 
dwelling-place of the great political leader and 
philosopher. 

These were the homes of Gordon's neighbors, and 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 71 

perhaps all of them, his friends. Not far from 
Montlcello, northwestward, is the town of Char- 
lottesville, near which lived James Monroe, fourth 
President of the United States; and two miles fur- 
ther off was "Blenheim," the seat of Andrew Steven- 
son, Speaker of the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives during Gordon's membership of that body, 
and Minister to the Court of St. James under the 
administration of Jackson. A few miles away is the 
birthplace and burial-place of Thomas Walker Gil- 
mer, Gordon's contemporary and friend. Governor 
of Virginia, Member of Congress, and Secretary of 
the Navy, killed by the accident on the steamer 
Princeton, before he had well passed his fortieth 
year. 

"Within but a little distance," says a recent writer, 
in a local article describing the distinguished homes 
near the University of Virginia, "between the home 
of Monroe and the burial-place of Gilmer still stands 
the house in which lived Joshua Fry, the colonel of 
Washington's regiment, above whose burial-place 
that great man carved upon a tree, that beneath its 
shelter lay 'the good, the just, the noble Fry.' 

"A little further off to the west stands the stately 
mansion in which was born Edward Coles, Terri- 
torial, and afterwards first Governor of Illinojs. Go 
directly south of the birth-place of Edward Coles, 
and you come to the birth-place, now only a memory 
of Vi^ilson Cary Nicholas, member of Congress, 
United States Senator from Virginia, and Governor 
of Virginia." 

Turning eastward again, across the Southwest 
Mountains from Gordon's house at Edgeworth, was 
the mansion of James Barbour, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, United States Senator and Minister to the 
Court of St. James; Avhile a mile away was the resi- 
dence of his brother, Philip Pendleton Barbour, mem- 
ber of Congress, Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives and Justice of the Supreme Court, both 



72 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

of whom were Gordon's warm personal and politi- 
cal friends, and the latter of whom he hoped and 
endeavored in the Democratic National Convention 
at Baltimore in 1835, to nominate for Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

"Come back now to Monticello," continues the 
writer above quoted, "and look across the river to 
your left, and just beyond the bridge which spans its 
red waters. On the hillside sloping towards the river 
was born George Rogers Clark, the intrepid soldier, 
and the great conquerer of the Northwest Territory. 
Follow the river up towards its source, and up one of 
Its smaller northern tributaries a few miles, and in a 
cabin of which no trace now remains, was born Gen- 
eral Sumter, the hero of the Revolution, member of 
Congress and Senator from South Carolina. 

"A few miles further north, and you come to 
stately 'Montpelier,' the home and burial-place of 
James Madison * * * Go up the railroad a few 
miles towards Washington, and a monument marks 
the spot where stood the cabin in which Zachary Tay- 
lor, hero of the Mexican War, and President of the 
United States, was born. 

"Come back again to Monticello, and stand on the 
western slope of the little mountain, and look up the 
meanders of the river. About four miles off you can 
see a large white house In a grove, the home of Dr. 
George Gilmer, Revolutionary patriot, where once 
lived William Wirt, Attorney-General of the United 
States, jurist, orator and author. But a few steps 
back of the house sleeps his first wife — his earliest 
love. 

"Look down Into Charlottesville. About the cen- 
tre of the town and near the City Hall, was born 
Nicholas P. Trist, the distinguished statesman of 
Kentucky, who together with Mr. Jefferson, drew 
the celebrated resolutions of '98 and '99. Follow 
the main street of the little city, by the rotunda of the 
University, and passing the home of the present 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 73 

Senator of Virginia, Thomas S. Martin, you come to 
Ivy, a pleasant little hamlet seven miles away. Half 
a mile to the north of this village you come to the 
birth-place of Meriwether Lewis, who w4th a brother 
of George Rogers Clark, made his way to 'where 
rolls the Oregon,' and opened the way of the world 
to the great States of Washington and Oregon. Of 
his birth-place and home only a chimney remains." 

Here, too, amid the foothills of this Piedmont 
region, that bear the peculiar physical characteristic 
of a vivid red soil, lived Dabney Carr, patriot and 
eloquent orator, who moved the resolutions in the 
Virginia House of Burgesses in 1773 for the ap- 
pointment of the Committee of Correspondence. He 
married Jefferson's sister; and their son, the younger 
Dabney Carr, was chancellor of the Winchester Dis- 
trict of Virginia for thirteen years, and Judge of the 
Supreme Court of Appeals of the State from 1824 
to 1837. 

The roster of these Piedmontese would lack com- 
pleteness if it failed to include the name of Francis 
Walker Gilmer, of Albemarle, to whom was en- 
trusted by Mr. Jefferson in 1824 the important task 
of going abroad and inducing the acceptance by dis- 
tinguished foreign scholars of professorships in the 
new University of Virginia. The correspondence of 
Jefferson and Gilmer still exists in manuscript form, 
bound in a thick volume, which also contains letters 
of advice and assistance from Dugald Stewart, Ben- 
jamin Rush, Lord Brougham, Lord Teignmouth, 
Dr. Samuel Parr, Lord Forbes, Henry Drury of 
Harrow, Prof. John Leslie of Edinburgh, George 
Ticknor, Dupont de Nemours, William Wirt, and 
many others. Gilmer was a man of unusual qualities 
of mind, who died before the meridian of achieve- 
ment, but left upon his time the unmistakable mark 
of his genius. "Among those who have shown me 
favor," wrote of him John Randolph of Roanoke, 



74 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"I set high value upon the attachment of Frank Gil- 
mer." 

In the town of Charlottesville, though of a younger 
generation than Gordon, lived his son-in-law, Wil- 
liam J. Robertson, an eminent judge of the Supreme 
Court of Appeals of Virginia, who was the recog- 
nized leader of the bar of the State in his generation 
and who, among other notable cases in the United 
States Supreme Court, was counsel in the famous 
suit of General Robert E. Lee's children to recover 
Arlington from the United States Government; while 
in the nearby Piedmont county of Culpeper resided 
in the period of his earlier practice William Green, 
believed by his American contemporaries and by 
leading members of the English bar to be the most 
learned lawyer of the Western world; and who, 
though himself a slave-owner and regarding John 
Brown as a malefactor and assassin, represented him 
in his petition for a writ of error to the Supreme 
Court of Appeals of Virginia in 1861, because he 
thought that a knowledge of his client's guilt does 
not warrant a lawyer to refuse his case. To this 
petition, which was rejected. Green said in a letter 
to Governor John A. Andrew of Massachusetts, that 
he gave such ability and effort as he was able, "as if 
he had believed Brown innocent;" and Mr. Randolph 
Tucker has emphasized Green's statement by the as- 
sertion that the petition contained all the law of 
treason known to the English-speaking world. 

A large majority of these Piedmontese, whose 
careers have been briefly summarized in this chapter, 
were Gordon's contemporaries; and very many of 
them were his personal friends and intimates. They 
all, whether of an earlier or later time, are illustra- 
tive of the character and kind of people who for so 
long a period chose him as their representative in 
the legislative halls of the commonwealth and nation. 
It was no idle compliment which John Randolph 
of Roanoke paid to Philip Pendleton Barbour, upon 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 75 

the occasion of the latter's maiden speech in Con- 
gress, when he said, "Sir, I have listened to you; 
and I see that the Red Hills of Piedmont are still 
producing great men." 



CHAPTER V 

IN THE WAR OF l8l2 

Soon after Gordon moved from Orange County 
to Charlottesville the difficulties with England grow- 
ing out of her claim to the right of search, during 
her war with France, became acute. In 1809 Mr, 
Jetterson had finished his second term as President, 
and returned to Monticello, where his personal as- 
sociation with and influence over the young men 
in Charlottesville and Albemarle were dominating. 
His neighbor and friend, Mr. Madison, was still 
in the White House at Washington when war loomed 
on the horizon. Jefferson himself saw it coming in 
the spring of 18 12, as Governor Barbour had indi- 
cated it in his letter to Gordon of January 21st, of 
that year. "No doubt seems to be entertained here," 
he wrote from Richmond, "but that war is inevi- 
table." Mr. Jefferson wrote to a friend in England: 
"Our two countries are to be at war, but not you 
and I. And why should our two countries be at 
war, when by peace we can be so much more useful 
to one another? Surely the world will acquit our 
government from having sought it. Never before 
has there been an instance of a nation bearing so 
much as we have borne." 

Both Jefferson and Madison had carried endur- 
ance to the limit; but the Republican party to which 
they belonged was so overwhelmingly in favor of 
hostilities that the President was compelled to re- 
commend a declaration. In June, 18 12, Congress 
passed an act declaring the existence of a state of 
war between the United States and Great Britain, 
and the President issued his proclamation that war 
had begun. New England opposed the war, and 
threatened secession; and when the administration, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 



77 



in accordance with the provisions of the act of Con- 
gress, called for militia, the governors of Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut and Rhode Island refused to obey; 
and the courts of their several States sustained them 
on the ground that the act was unconstitutional. 
Disasters to the American arms on land, and vic- 
tories at sea, were the earliest fruits of the struggle, 
which until May, 1813, raged at a distance from 
the territory and shores of Virginia. Early in that 
month, however. Admiral Cockburn, with a British 
fleet, entered Chesapeake Bay, and committed various 
depredations in Maryland. In August of the fol- 
lowing year a detachment of four thousand British 
soldiers under General Ross marched fifty miles 
across country to Washington, from the fleet, and 
captured the city. The President and his Cabinet 
sought safety in flight, while the British soldiers ate 
the dinner that had been prepared and drank "the 
ale, cider and wine" that had been "placed in the 
coolers" for the entertainment of the members of 
"the Cabinet, military gentlemen and strangers" 
whom the President had invited to dine with him 
that day. Admiral Cockburn entered the hall of the 
House of Representatives at the Capitol, at the head 
of a band of followers, and seating himself in the 
Speaker's chair, put them the question: "Shall this 
harbor of Yankee democracy be burned? All for 
it will say 'Aye.' " The ayes had it; and the Capitol 
and other public buildings in Washington were de- 
stroyed by incendiary fire. 

In the mean time, and before the burning of the 
Capitol, great excitement had been precipitated in 
Virginia by the attack on Craney Island, near Nor- 
folk, by the British, and its successful defense by the 
Americans; and later the capture of the town of 
Hampton. 

James Barbour, the Governor of Virginia, assem- 
bled the citizen soldiery in the field. Gordon, with 
other kindred spirits, volunteered. On the 31st of 



78 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

July, 1 8 14, he wrote to his wife, then at her father's 
house, from Charlottesville : 

"On my arrival here I was informed that Colonel 
Yancey, who will command us, was without a clerk, 
and hearing he would not be here for a day or two, 
I procured a furlough from my officer, and rode im- 
mediately to see the Colonel, who has appointed me 
clerk to the regiment. I shall be a member of the 
Colonel's family, along with Dabney Carr, Tucker 
Coles, and several other genteel persons. The troops 
will march from this place to-day." 

On the 30th of August he announced the arrival 
of his regiment, under Colonel Charles Yancey, in 
Richmond; and stated that he had reported to the 
Governor, "who has taken the field, and pitched 
his tent in camp" — a characteristic action on the part 
of the Chief Executive of the Commonwealth, who, 
in this contest, "is said to have pledged his personal 
means to sustain the credit of his State, and by his 
vigilant and able conduct of affairs nobly maintained 
the honor of Virginia, who acted well her part in this 
second struggle with Old England." 

"We were ordered to report ourselves," continued 
Gordon in his letter, "to the adjutant-general this 
morning, which we shall presently do. The imme- 
diate apprehension for this place will be lessened 
by the arrival of a number of volunteer and other 
troops, who are pouring into the city from every 
direction. We have heard that the enemy have 
evacuated Washington, and there is nothing but 
vague rumor as to any other of their movements. 
Great exertions are making to put Virginia in an 
'armor of defence;' and I cannot suffer myself for 
a moment to doubt the result and happy consequence 
of such efforts. Our immediate destination we shall 
know in a few hours. I am informed from good au- 
thority that I shall receive a very pretty appointment 
on the general staff, which will enable me probably 
to render more service to the republic, with more 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 79 

advantage to myself. * * * Tell your father that 
I believe all the property here, that can be transported 
to places of safety, has been sent away." 

A few days thereafter, he writes from "Camp 
Warronigh" near West Point, on the York. River: 

"Colonel Randolph's detachment arrived at this 
present encampment two days since. The corps are 
all high in spirits, and anxious to encounter the 
enemy. He has under his command the finest of the 
youth of Virginia. Our wary enemy I hear will not 
give us an opportunity of obliterating the disgrace 
at Washington. He will probably wait until the 
ardor of the moment shall have passed away before 
any attempt is made on Virginia. Our Colonel has 
all his chivalry about him. Major David Watson 
of Louisa is with us. I am in a very genteel mess, 
and am as contented as I can be away from my 
family. 

"There is a novelty in a camp life which is not 
unpleasant to me, though every moment of reflec- 
tion teaches me the value of the happiness I have 
left behind me. But when I see thousands of others 
who have made even greater sacrifices than myself, 
I feel that I should be degraded in any other char- 
acter than that of a soldier for the term. I have 
declined several little appointments which would 
have lightened the burdens of my condition; but I 
have refused to leave the ranks of my country, where 
I can share the diflUculties of the time. Our friend, 
James Ragland, will be appointed adjutant to the 
cavalry under Colonel Randolph; and he insists on 
my aiding him, which I shall consent to do. 

"There has been considerable difficulty in procur- 
ing provisions, &c., for the numerous troops and 
companies that are and will be in service. There are 
many of my friends and acquaintances in camp. 
Francis Gilmer is with us, acting as secretary to 
Major Watson. I have determined to ask for no 



80 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

appointment whatever. If my merits do not point 
me out, I shall continue a private." 

Early in September he wrote from Richmond that 
he and his wife's kinsman, William Lindsay, had 
joined Captain Carr's troop of cavalry, "which with 
the Richmond Blues, and several other of the finest 
companies here, will form an elite corps under the 
immediate command of Colonel Randolph. * * * 
There are a great quantity of troops from all parts 
of the country, the choice spirits of Virginia, flock- 
ing to her standard. I have until this morning been 
at Headquarters, writing constantly. I was much 
solicited to remain in the department of the adju- 
tant-general, but I preferred the situation of a pri- 
vate with Colonel Randolph. 

"I have not seen Mr. Rutherford's family, or him- 
self. Your father has no doubt heard of the dis- 
graceful capitulation of Alexandria. Thank God, 
it is not a part of Virginia! Mr. Rutherford has 
moved all his tobacco up to his own lot. The troops 
are in the finest spirits you can imagine. The spirit 
of the people will erase the disgrace of the Govern- 
ment. We want talents everywhere, patriotism is 
general. Our patriotic Governor is using all his 
exertions to sustain the high character of Virginia. 

"I have just got a sword; and really I have 
reminded myself of the humorous story in the 'Spec- 
tator' of the gentleman who could scarcely keep his 
sword from between his legs. I shall be shortly a 
more accomplished soldier," 

Again, from Camp Warronigh, he wrote, on Sep- 
tember 14, 1 8 14: 

"I fear we shall have no opportunity of meeting 
the enemy on our shores. This whole corps would 
meet them with a firmness and enthusiasm inspired 
by the occasion, and by the devotion of every 
man in it to our heroic commander. It _ is 
really enviable to see to what a degree of affection 
and attachment he has already bound all to him. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 8i 

"The only articles I purchased in Richmond were 
a flannel coat and a pair of nankeen pantaloons. If 
my Virginia cloth is ready, you would have an op- 
portunity in fifteen days from the present date of 
sending me down any articles you may make by Mr. 
Arthur Clayton of Louisa, who has a furlough, and 
will return in that time. I am, however, not in want 
of clothes, and do not affect any of the parade of 
a soldier. If I had time and seclusion, I could 
interest you somewhat with a description of this coun- 
try; but the frequent interruptions of business forbid. 
We have heard that some of the enemy's ships have 
left the Bay, destination unknown." 

William Wirt was one of the oflScers at Camp 
Warronigh, and commanded an artillery company. 
In a letter written by him in September, 1814, he 
says, "Frank Gilmer, Jefferson Randolph, the Carrs 
and others, have got tired waiting for the British, 
and gone home." 

No other of Gordon's letters home during this 
period have been preserved, until that of December 
23, 1 8 14, written from Camp Carter, on the 
Chickahominy River, where the Virginia army, 
theretofore commanded by Governor Barbour, in 
person, had now gone into winter quarters. The 
State troops while at Camp Carter, and at Camp 
Holly on the Chickahominy, were commanded by 
General John Hartwell Cocke, who was later a con- 
spicuous. figure in the history of Virginia as a mem- 
ber of the first Board of Visitors of the University 
of Virginia, and as Vice-President of the American 
Colonization Society, formed for the purpose of 
settling the slavery question by the colonization of 
the negroes of the South in Africa. 

"The day after I wrote to you," Gordon wrote, 
under the foregoing date, to Mrs. Gordon, at Spring- 
field, "I was requested by General Cocke, through 
6 



82 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

his aide, Mr. Rives, to act as his Secretary, to which 
I consented, as it would render my situation more 
comfortable and pleasing. I have been at camp 
several days waiting for the General, who is in the 
neighborhood of Williamsburg. He is expected 
here to-day. 

"You will be quite at a loss to conceive how an 
encampment, which a few weeks since was in wood, 
furnishes accommodation for upwards of two thou- 
sand men, as warm as your mother's chamber, the 
streets of which are as smooth and dry as the best 
turnpike road. The cabins are all neat and warm. 
In the absence of General Cocke, I have slept in the 
quarters of Lieutenant Nicholas. 

"I find General Cocke universally respected and 
looked up to by the officers under his command — a 
striking instance of the triumph of talents and per- 
severance in a cause of duty over the momentary 
prejudices and disgusts of others. 

"If Gilmer has returned, present my warm re- 
gards to him, and tell him to write to me, or come 
down to see me, if he can spare time." 

In the interval between the last letter, and that 
which follows, the battle of New Orleans had been 
fought. On the 8th of January, 1815, General An- 
drew Jackson, with seven thousand men, for the 
most part raw militia brought hastily together, had 
m.et and repulsed the attack of eight thousand ex- 
perienced and highly trained veterans, many of whom 
had seen service in the European wars. The Ameri- 
can loss had been only seventy-one men. The 
British loss was two thousand, including their cour- 
ageous leader. General Pakenham. It was a glorious 
triumph for the citizen soldiery, and afforded an 
ample vindication of the views of the republicans of 
Mr. Jefferson's school, who were opposed to a large 
standing army, and believed that citizen troops 
properly organized by the States constituted a suffi- 
cient defense in time of war. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 83 

On February 2, 18 15, Gordon wrote from Rich- 
mond, whither he had accompanied General Cocke : 

"The intelhgence that General Jaclcson had suc- 
cessfully resisted the enemy at New Orleans has 
given great joy, v/hich has been somewhat damped 
by our loss of the President frigate, commanded by 
the gallant Decatur. We are ignorant of the par- 
ticulars, but we know that she had to contend with 
several vessels larger than she was, after having 
been crippled in a previous action, so there is no honor 
gone. We have heard nothing from our Commis- 
sioners and of the state of Europe. 

"But I am writing to you a letter of politics. Gen- 
eral Cocke is so much pleased with my 'home-spun' 
that he presents you with his compliments, and begs 
you will accept as much merino wool as will make 
a suit of clothes. I have just heard that the Presi- 
dent has returned the Bank-bill to the Senate with 
objections. We have just learned that General Jack- 
son has killed and taken fifteen hundred of the enemy, 
among whom are three of their generals. This is 
glorious !" 

The battle of New Orleans had been fought and 
won by the Americans after the official end of the 
war. The Treaty of Ghent had been concluded, and 
signed on Christmas day of 18 14, by the Commis- 
sioners of the United States, Albert Gallatin, Henry 
Clay and John Quincy Adams on the one side, and 
those of Great Britain on the other; but as at that 
time it took six weeks or more for a sailing vessel 
to cross the Atlantic, news of the peace did not reach 
America until about the middle of February. 

In the mean time, Gordon wrote to his wife from 
Camp Carter on the loth day of February, 18 15: 

"I hope you will not be unhappy at any of the 
rumors of this epidemic which prevails in the coun- 



84 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

try. I have no apprehension from it myself; and 
indeed the cases which have occurred in this vici- 
nity are now of a moderate character and perfectly 
manageable by physicians; add to which that few 
or no persons are subject to it except those who 
have been exposed to violent cold weather, and 
those who are not clothed warmly. The physicans 
say there is nothing contagious in it. 

"In a few days I shall set out with General Cocke 
for Williamsburg, and shall visit York, where I ex- 
pect to have many emotions awakened calculated to 
make me more patriotic. If there is a post day, I 
will write you from that place. From my retrospect 
of an era in our revolutionary fortunes my mind 
moves with rapidity towards the theatre of the glory 
of General Jackson. The papers will tell you how 
he has fought and how he has conquered; and you 
v^^ill say with me that we are not a degenerate people, 
when we see the conquerors of the Old World, of 
disciplined valor and renown in arms, bowing before 
the impetuous ardor of a free and unconquerable 
militia. Old England will stand amazed, and the 
European world will discredit the great defence 
which our troops have made." 

There were well-informed people in Great 
Britain, however, in the time of this episode, as in 
that of the Revolution, who had deprecated the war, 
and to whom the news of the victory won by_ the 
civilian soldiers of Jackson over Pakenham's trained 
regulars did not come as a total surprise. The Lon- 
don Statesman of March 30, 18 13, had said: 

"America must be excepted from the expression 
'AH our enemies.' She is of us, and of us improved. 
We are neither ashamed nor afraid to say so. We 
knew it before, and knowing so much, we have uni- 
formly deprecated going to war with her. The 
Americans will be the most terrible warriors we have 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 85 

had to contend with. We have, like fools, despised 
them as a power in arms." 

On the 1 8th of February, 18 15, peace was pro- 
claimed by the President of the United States, and 
was received throughout Virginia with manifesta- 
tions of joy. Through the country sections and the 
towns alike the people exhibited their delight by 
burning bonfires and illuminating their houses. They 
were glad to be rid of what they regarded as in no 
small measure the cause of the "hard times" that 
existed; for the National Government had become 
almost bankrupt, and outside of New England 
nearly every bank had suspended specie payments, 
and the circulating medium had become "script" is- 
sued by towns, notes of "wildcat" banks, and the 
"paper" of private individuals. 

Gordon's last letter to his wife from camp was 
written on the day after the President's proclama- 
tion of peace. 

"I write by our friend, George Lindsay, from a 
fear that I shall not be able to get off before he 
reaches the neighborhood, being obliged to remain 
with General Cocke a few days whilst his brigade is 
discharging. You will probably expect, in conse- 
quence of the peace to which our country is restored, 
that I should be earlier at home than I can be con- 
sistently with my duty and station. It gives me great 
joy to congratulate you on the return of peace to our 
happy country." 

What Gordon called "a free and unconquerable 
militia" was the reliance for defense in time of war 
of the republicans of the strict-construction school. 
As the French King denominated his cannon, on 
which he had caused the legend to be inscribed 
^'Ultima ratio regmn," so the Jeffcrsonian demo- 
cracy of the period regarded standing armies and 
military equipment, under the organization and con- 



86 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

trol of the central government, as the final resort of 
despotism. 

In the time of the Revolution the raw militia re- 
cruited from the Northern States had not been a 
success, whether from natural inaptitude to the use 
of arms, or from lack of military skill; and this in 
spite of the fact that they were "embattled farmers" 
who at Lexington, Massachusetts, "fired the shot 
heard 'round the world." It was only in the South 
that soldiers, like Morgan's riflemen, who could put 
a rifle bullet through a wild turkey's head at a dis- 
tance of a hundred yards, or Lee's legionaries, who 
as the sons of planters had grown up on horseback, 
with guns in their hands, and were soldiers by in- 
stinct and custom, redeemed the faults of the North- 
ern militia. The citizen soldiery have been sneered 
at by Federalist writers from the foundation of the 
Government; but throughout the story of the coun- 
try the militia of the South have shown themselves 
adequate to its defense, from Saratoga, where Mor- 
gan's men won the battle, down through the Cow- 
pens, the pivotal and "most astonishing battle of the 
Revolution," to New Orleans, through Chapultepec 
and Cherubusco and Monterey to the first Manas- 
sas in 1 86 1, and the earlier battles of the Con- 
federacy. 

Virginia, from the Revolutionary period, had 
maintained an elaborate system of local militia — a 
system in which many of her most distinguished 
citizens took a practical and abiding interest; and 
under which a host of the very flower of her youth 
esteemed it an honor to serve as privates in the ranks. 
This elaborate scheme of "a well-regulated militia," 
as it is named in the act of Assembly, was early 
recognized by statute as constituting "the great de- 
fence of a free people;" and if the "Virginia colonel" 
has been a perennial and lasting product of the soil 
of the Commonwealth, he has been always a legiti- 
mate one, who in periods of necessity has not failed 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 87 

to justify his existence to his country. Presidents, 
Governors, Supreme Court Judges, Congressmen, 
leading lawyers and professional men, have, at 
various periods in the history of the State, deemed 
it honorable to serve and hold office in the State 
military organization. A roll of the Virginians who, 
since Yorktown, through the period ending with the 
secession of the Commonwealth in 1861, have been 
members of the militia, would contain the names 
of a very large proportion of those whose histories 
have adorned the civic life of the State and of the 
nation. 

The counties of the State, under this military sys- 
tem, were divided by law into twenty brigades and 
four divisions. A brigadier-general was elected by 
joint ballot of the two houses of the General As- 
sembly, for each brigade, who was required to reside 
within the limits of his command. There was a 
similar method of election of a major-general for 
each of the four divisions, and these general officers 
and their subordinate commissioned officers received 
commissions at the hands of the Governor, who was 
commander-in-chief by virtue of his office. The rank 
and file were organized Into companies, regiments, 
brigades and divisions, and were drilled at stated 
intervals, and received instruction in military tactics. 
But, doubtless, after all, the best results of the militia 
system of the period came from the existence of an 
organization, which became more or less effective 
when necessity arose. The drill and military instruc- 
tion probably accomplished little more than to bring 
the citizen soldiers together on occasion. The value 
and efficiency of the Virginia militia of the first half 
of the nineteenth century consisted In their natural 
aptitude for military service, growing out of their 
familiarity with fire-arms, their habitude of an out- 
door life, and that "free and unconquerable spirit" 
which animated the people of the Commonwealth. 

So It was that Gordon regarded it as no small 



88 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

honor, after seeing service as a private in the field 
in the War of 1812, to occupy at a later date the 
office, and to discharge the duties, of both brigadier- 
general and major-general, during the continuance 
of his public career — to which military positions he 
was successively elected by the General Assembly of 
the State. 



CHAPTER VI 

IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY THE UNIVERSITY 

OF VIRGINIA 

Gordon returned home at the close of the War of 
1812 with Great Britain, and resumed the practice 
of his profession, maintaining in the meanwhile an 
active interest in the political occurrences of the 
period. 

The Hartford Convention illustrated the con- 
tinued opposition of New England to the war. 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut sent 
delegates to this convention, which assembled at 
Hartford, Connecticut, on December 15, 18 14, in 
response to an invitation of the first named State, 
and continued in session until January 5, 18 15. 
There were also delegates in attendance from some 
of the communities of Vermont and New Hamp- 
shire. The sessions were secret; but the published 
report of the convention illustrates the first overt 
act of nullification by an assemblage of States in the 
history of the Union. It justified secession as per- 
missible, but not to be resorted to save as an abso- 
lute necessity, and affirmed the doctrines of the Vir- 
ginia and Kentucky resolutions. It adjourned to meet 
in June, if its demands on Congress were not com- 
plied with, or peace declared in the meantime. The 
president's proclamation of February the i8th dealt 
it its death-blow; and it did not reassemble. 

War with Algiers followed in 1815, in which De- 
catur added to the fame which he had achieved in 
that of 18 12. In 18 16 Congress established a new 
national bank, with a charter to continue twenty 
years, the expiration of which gave rise to one of the 
most tremendous political struggles in the history 
of the country. Out of this struggle emerged the 



90 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

great financial measure of the Independent Treasury, 
v/ith which Gordon's distinction as a statesman is 
most closely associated. In that year Colonel James 
Monroe was elected President of the United States. 
In 1816 a panic lasting for two years inaugurated the 
first serious antagonism to the Bank of the United 
States; and in that year also General Andrew Jack- 
son conducted to a successful termination the first 
Seminole War in Florida. 

In the last named year Gordon was elected, with 
Samuel Carr, to represent Albemarle County in the 
Virginia House of Delegates. Mr. Joseph C. Ca- 
bell had been since 181 1 the State Senator from the 
district of which Albemarle formed a part; and, in 
the session of the General Assembly preceding Gor- 
don's election, had been warmly enlisted and actively 
engaged in forwarding Mr. Jefferson's cherished 
scheme for the establishment of a State University. 
Cabell was an earnest advocate of education; and 
has been especially and deservedly distinguished as 
Mr. Jefferson's earliest and most prominent coad- 
jutor in the great work of founding the University 
of Virginia at Charlottesville. The memorials of 
his relation to that noble undertaking and achieve- 
ment are preserved in a volume published after his 
death, under the title, "Early History of the Univer- 
sity of Virginia, as contained in the letters of Thomas 
Jefferson and Joseph C. Cabell." This volume con- 
tains a voluminous correspondence between these 
two warm personal and political friends, dealing 
with a vast number of interesting subjects, chief 
among which are those of education in Virginia, and 
the establishment of the University. During the 
years 18 17 and 18 18 the principal and absorbing 
theme of this correspondence is "The Central Col- 
lege," and the University bill in the General As- 
sembly. 

When Gordon entered the lower house in the lat- 
ter year, Mr. Jefferson felt that with Cabell in the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 91 

Senate embodying a wide public acquaintance, a 
thorough familiarity with the subject, and a large 
experience in legislation, and with Gordon in the 
House of Delegates, active, energetic, magnetic and 
full of enthusiasm, he had two able local representa- 
tives of his enterprise; and the event justified the an- 
ticipation, though only after a long and often almost 
desperate struggle. 

Mr. Cabell resided at Union Hill, in Nelson 
County, at some distance from Monticello. Gordon, 
on the other hand, lived in the same county with the 
sage of Monticello, and in the same neighborhood, 
as the neighborhoods of that day were reckoned; and 
saw him constantly in his visits to Charlottesville, 
and to Mr. Jefferson's home. There was little need, 
therefore, of personal correspondence between them, 
during the vacations of the legislature; and during 
its sessions the venerable ex-President, to whom 
writing had become a physical burden, of which he 
often complained, continued his correspondence upon 
University matters with Mr. Cabell, as was most 
natural, with the assurance that his views and wishes 
would be communicated by him to Gordon and to 
the other zealous friends of the measure. Thus 
there was little written correspondence between the 
two men ; but the value of Gordon's services in effect- 
ing the final establishment of the University, and 
in subsequent legislation touching its continued ex- 
istence, Is attested by the frequency of mention made 
of him and his work in the Jefferson-Cabell letters, no 
less than by the record of his work In the House of 
Delegates. 

The distinction which he had already achieved as 
a lawyer won for him a position on the Committee 
on Courts of Justice Immediately upon his becoming 
a member of the House of Delegates; and he also 
received appointment on the important Committee 
of Finance, and, what he coveted still more, because 
of the opportunity it gave him of accomplishing ef- 



92 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

fective work for the University bill, a position on 
the Committee of Schools and Colleges. 

The naked skeleton of a University bill had passed 
both houses of the General Assembly in the preced- 
ing February. This had been accomplished by the 
grafting upon the school bill of a provision for a 
University. The title of the act was, "An act ap- 
propriating part of the Revenue of the Literary 
Fund, and for other purposes;" and the date of its 
passage was February 21, 18 18. Gordon's friend, 
James Barbour, when speaker of the House of Dele- 
gates in 1 8 10, had drawn a bill, which was enacted 
into a law in February of that year, providing that 
all escheats, confiscations, fines, penalties and for- 
feitures, and all rights in personal property found 
derelict, should be appropriated to the encourage- 
ment of learning; and the Auditor of the State was 
required to open an account with this fund, which 
was designated as "The Literary Fund." It was 
managed by a president and directors, who by act 
of February 24, 18 15, were directed to elaborate a 
scheme of public instruction. They made a report 
on the 6th of December, 18 16, recommending the 
establishment of three grades of educational insti- 
tutions, to wit: primary schools, academies, and a 
University; and the act of February 21, 18 18, was 
based upon this report. 

The last named act provided generally for the es- 
establishment of "a University to be called the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, wherein all the branches of use- 
ful science shall be taught," and specifically for the 
appointment of a Board of Commissioners, who 
should report to the legislature, site, plan, 
branches of learning, number and description 
of professorships, and general provisions for 
organization and government. The bill also 
provided for the appropriation of the sum 
of fifteen thousand dollars per annum out of the 
revenue of the Literary Fund "for the purpose of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 93 

defraying the expenses of procuring the land and 
erecting the buildings, and for the permanent en- 
dowment of the said University" — a sum grossly in- 
adequate to make even a beginning of the great work 
that Mr. Jefferson had so much in mind. 

It was a case of stat nominis umbra. Unless addi- 
tional apppropriations could be had the warmest 
friends of a University recognized that the scheme 
was but the shadow of a name; and when the selec- 
tion of a site came to be considered by those who 
hoped to obtain such increased appropriations, the 
troubles of the project began. The rival claims of 
Charlottesville, Staunton, Lexington and Williams- 
burg were insistent; and in each case were supported 
by powerful local influences, which threatened to 
create dissensions and difficulties that would prove 
to be insurmountable. The commissioners, con- 
sisting of a number of the ablest and most prominent 
men in the State, met on August i, 18 18, at the 
Rockfish Gap Tavern, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 
Mr. Jefferson, a member of the body, was elected 
chairman; and, after a protracted discussion, the 
site at Charlottesville, where the Central College 
was located, of which he and Mr. Cabell were both 
visitors, was chosen by a vote of fourteen therefor, 
as against five for other places. An elaborate report, 
setting forth in detail a scheme for the University, 
was prepared and forwarded to the two Houses of 
the General Assembly. 

Under date of December 12, 18 18, Gordon wrote 
from Richmond to his wife : 

"The report of Mr. Jefferson and the commis- 
sioners was received with universal admiration; but 
the friends of the University fear that there will be 
some opposition to its being situated at the Central 
College, which I trust may not succeed, and I believe 
will not. I send your father a copy of the report 
with my most affectionate regards." 



94 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

In the House of Delegates the report of the com- 
missioners was referred to a select committee, of 
which Gordon was a member. Then the fight began. 
Mr. Cabell wrote to Mr. Jefferson: "The prospect 
is favorable; but the effect of intrigue and manage- 
ment is beyond the reach of calculation." Cabell's 
health was bad, and his friends were eager to have 
him go to Williamsburg, and remain there until its 
recovery. But with Spartan fortitude he declined to 
leave his post in the Senate while the University mat- 
ter was in jeopardy. 

"At Bremo my fevers returned," he wrote to Mr. 
Jefferson on December 8, the day of the appointment 
of the select committee, "but since I left that place 
my recovery has been advancing uninterruptedly. I 
shall proceed to Williamsburg and stay a week or 
two, so soon as the subject of the University shall be 
put on a footing satisfactory to my mind." 

Gordon on the select committee was bending every 
energy to accomplish the adoption by it of the re- 
port; but the opposition in the House of Delegates 
was, from the beginning, able, alert and resourceful. 
The day after Christmas, 1818, he wrote to Mrs. 
Gordon: "I had at one time indulged a vain hope 
that I could have gone home about this time; but 
the importance of our University bill is so great to 
Virginia, and particularly to Albemarle, that I feared 
to leave it, — especially as there is a very considerable 
resistance to the whole plan of education in Virginia; 
and I believe an attempt will be made to destroy the 
Fund by appropriating it to other purposes." 

On the 8th of January following, with the sub- 
ject of the University still haunting his thought, even 
in moments of domestic correspondence, he wrote 
to his wife: "I hope to return to you with a civic 
wreath, if I can accomplish the great interest in 
which our county and country are concerned." 

At the third meeting of the committee the^ op- 
ponents of Charlottesville as the site of the Univer- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 95 

sity lost by only one vote, and that the casting vote 
of the chairman, a motion to leave blank the location 
— a movement, which had it been successful would 
have easily resulted in an effective combination of 
a majority against that feature of the report, and a 
complete frustration of Mr. Jefferson's most cher- 
ished hopes. But the majority of one for Charlottes- 
ville was sufficient; and immediately thereupon the 
report was adopted, and the site of the institution 
thus fixed as its originator had planned. 

The opposition in the legislature, however, and 
especially in the House of Delegates, grew in in- 
tensity. The Tidewater country and the western sec- 
tion of the State were equally hostile. Cabell, in 
spite of his delicate condition of health, continued at 
his post in the Senate; and in the House Gordon 
used all the persuasive arts of conciliation and of per- 
sonal appeal, which -he subsequently demonstrated 
were among his distinguishing political characteris- 
tics. The bill reported by the select committee was 
debated in committee of the whole in the House of 
Delegates on January 18, 18 19, and the vote was 
taken on a motion to amend by striking out "the Cen- 
tral College in Albemarle," as "a convenient and 
proper part of the State for the University of Vir- 
ginia," resulting in a decisive victory for the friends 
of the institution by a vote of one hundred and four- 
teen to sixty-nine. That night Gordon wrote to Mrs. 
Gordon : "We have been engaged for upwards of 
a week incessantly in discussing the University bill, 
and I think there is now no doubt that it will be 
located at the Central College, as a vote was taken 
in our house on yesterday decisive, I think, of the 
final enactment of the bill." 

The battle had been fought out to a finish and won 
upon the field of its fiercest conflict, in the House of 
Delegates; and with the successful determination of 
the fight in that body its passage through the Senate 
seemed comparatively easy. The shadow had begun 



96 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

to take a local habitation no less than a name; and 
"An act for the establishment of an University" was 
reported to the House from the Committee of the 
Whole, and passed there on January 19, 18 19, by a 
vote of one hundred and forty-three to twenty-eight. 
It then went to the Senate, where Mr. Cabell's long 
and able service and compelling influence had at last 
disarmed substantial opposition, and passed that 
body on January 25, 18 19, by a vote of sixteen to 
seven, and was signed by Governor James B. Pres- 
ton, thus becoming a law. 

For its passage in the House of Delegates, where 
the most determined and protracted opposition to 
the measure was manifested, his colleagues gave no 
small part of the credit to the zeal, the energy, the 
tact and the eloquence of Gordon, of whom Mr. 
Jefferson, in a similar connection at a later day, wrote 
to Mr. Cabell, as being "the local representative of 
the University, and among its most zealous friends." 

But the troubles of the infant institution had not 
ended with Its legislative establishment and location. 
The winter of 18 19-1820 was pregnant with signifi- 
cance to its future existence. The question of 
financing the new educational enterprise was one of 
great moment and of even greater delicacy. The 
defeated opposition had not been conquered; and the 
friends of the University in the legislature were 
forced to feel their way continuously, step by step. 
Cabell wrote to Mr. Jefferson under date of Febru- 
ary 24th, 1820: "The enclosed bill has this day 
passed into a law. The House of Delegates having 
first rejected the amendment of the Senate for 
$80,000; and then that for $40,000, and having 
postponed the whole bill on the 22nd, General 
Breckinridge, Mr. Johnson and myself had a con- 
sultation, and agreed that the interests of the institu- 
tion would be promoted by the bill now enclosed. 
Our friend, Mr. Gordon, had already moved for 
leave to bring in a bill, and was in the midst of an 



WILLIAiM FITZHUGH GORDON 97 

animated discussion, when Mr. Johnson and myself 
got to the House. We prevailed on him to withdraw 
his motion, to make way for the introduction of the 
subject by General Breckinridge, who, we supposed, 
not being from the local district, would have more 
influence with the House. The bill went through this 
morning with but little opposition. We hope we 
have taken the course which yourself and the other 
visitors will approve, considering the circumstances 
in which we were placed. The University is popular 
in the Senate, and unpopular in the House of Dele- 
gates." 

It had been popular in the Senate and unpopular 
in the House from the beginning; and it was always 
in the latter body that the most persistent, steady and 
strenuous effort in its behalf was constantly required. 
Whether through its introduction by General Breck- 
inridge, or through the activity and animated argu- 
ments of Gordon, the subject took shape on the 23d 
day of February in the order by the House that a 
committee, of which both Breckinridge and Gordon 
were members, "do prepare and bring in a bill au- 
thorizing the Visitors of the University of Virginia 
to borrow money for furnishing the buildings 
thereof." The bill, which was the one enclosed by 
Cabell to Jefferson, was "brought in," and went 
through, as stated by the former, "with but little 
opposition." 

The success of the measure in its apparently com- 
paratively easy passage through the hostile House 
was not, however, a precursor of ever-continued 
smooth sailing. Difficulties and antagonisms had 
grown up between the friends of the State elementary 
schools and those of the University in the Legisla- 
ture; and Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Cabell under 
date of November 28, 1820, suggesting means of a 
reconciliation of the two antagonistic elements : 



98 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"A wrist stiffened by an ancient accident, now 
more so by the effect of age, renders writing a slow 
and irksome operation with me. I cannot therefore 
present these views by separate letters to each of our 
colleagues in the Legislature, but must pray you to 
communicate them to Mr. Johnson and General 
Breckinridge, and request them to consider them as 
equally meant for them. Mr. Gordon being the 
local representative of the University, and among its 
most zealous friends, would be a more useful second 
to General Breckinridge in the House of Delegates 
by a free communication of what concerns the Uni- 
versity, with which he (Breckinridge) has had little 
opportunity of becoming acquainted." 

When the Christmas holidays of this year ap- 
proached, Gordon wrote to his wife from his place 
in the legislature, that it made him melancholy to see 
members going home, while he had to stay; but 
added that "the University subject remains to be 
disposed of," and that he could not leave it. 

Mr. Cabell's reliance upon Gordon's influence in 
the House appears in repeated comments in his letters 
to Mr. Jefferson. "In the House of Delegates," he 
writes under date of February 25, 1821, "Mr. Gor- 
don has shown himself an able, valuable and efficient 
friend * * * j hope Mr. Gordon will return. 
The cordiality and generosity of his nature make 
him the favorite of a large circle of friends." 

Gordon was again a candidate and again returned. 
On September 23, 1822, we find Mr. Cabell sug- 
gesting to Jefferson a plan of operations for the 
legislative session. The smouldering fires of opposi- 
tion were still burning; and it behooved the friends 
of the University to keep constant watch and ward. 

"Mr. Gordon and Mr. Rives left this for 
Albemarle on yesterday," he wrote, "and will not 
probably return for eight or ten days. The latter 
went for his family, and the former to visit Mrs, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 99 

Gordon in her distress for the loss of a child. I am 
very sorry that they were obliged to leave town, as 
we want the aid of all our friends at this time. Mr. 
Gordon shewed me on Saturday a letter which he 
had just received from Mr. Dinsmore, stating that 
the undertakers had ascertained that they would not 
afford to build the library for less than $70,000. At 
my instance Mr. Gordon threw the letter in the fire. 
My object was to prevent its being made an im- 
proper use of, in the event of its being seen by our 
enemies. I have spoken with one or two friends con- 
fidentially on the subject, and we all agree that if the 
price of the undertakers should rise above $50,000, 
and more especially if it should reach $70,000, it 
would be better to abandon the project of a condi- 
tional contract on their parts, and leave us at large." 

"Dinsmore's $70,000," replied Mr. Jefferson on 
December 28, "evidence only the greediness of an 
undertaker"; and he went on to give estimates of 
sections of the work which he had obtained, and 
further to develop his plans about the building. "A 
letter of a page or two," he continued, "costs me a 
day of labor. I have few now to live; should I con- 
sign them all to pain? I ought, if I could, to write 
to yourself, to Mr. Johnson, Mr. Rives, Mr. Gor- 
don, and to Mr. Loyall, too, now one of our frater- 
nity. But what I say to one, you must all be so indul- 
gent as to consider meant for the whole." 

"I am happy to inform you," Cabell wrote back 
on December 30, "that Mr. Gordon and Mr. Rives 
arrived in town last evening, and have attended the 
House to-day. Mr. Gordon called on me this morn- 
ing, when I disclosed to him what I had done in his 
absence, and my present views and prospects. Mr. 

* * * has twice announced to Mr. Cary, on 
being consulted by him, that he would oppose any 
further building; yet Mr. Gordon thinks he may be 
brought over." 

Under date of January 2, following, Gordon 



loo WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

wrote to his wife: "The report of the Visitors of 
the University has been with us for some time; but, 
owing to the absence of Governor Pleasants with his 
family, has not yet been presented to the legislature. 
We hope to do something for it," 

Again the antagonism of the primary schools was 
cropping out. "Your favor of 13th instant," wrote 
Cabell to Mr, Jefferson on January 23, 1823, "came 
safely to hand by the mail. I have shown it to Mr. 
Gordon and Mr. Rives * * * jj^ regard to the 
academies and primary schools, I think our most 
prudent course at this time, is neither to enter into an 
alliance with them, nor to make war upon them 

* * * I have imparted these views to Mr. 
Rives, and left him to pursue his own course, Mr. 
Gordon concurs with me." 

The Loan bill, authorizing the borrowing of 
money for the buildings of the University, went 
through the Llouse of Delegates on February 3, 
1823, The House journal of that date states: 
"An engrossed bill 'concerning the University of Vir- 
ginia,' was read the third time; and the question 
being put upon the passage thereof, was determined 
in the affirm.ative. Ayes, 121; Noes, 66, Resolved: 
That the bill do pass and (the title being amended 
on Mr, Gordon's motion) that the title be 'An act 
concerning the University of Virginia, and for other 
purposes,' Ordered: That Mr, Gordon communi- 
cate the said bill to the Senate, and request their con- 
currence," 

The shadow of a name had at last grown into the 
substance of a fact. The recalcitrant House having 
been finally brought around, the Senate, with ready 
acquiescence, concurred, on February 5, by a vote of 
nineteen to three; and on the same date Mr, Cabell 
wrote a jubilant letter to Mr. Jefferson, extending 
his congratulations, and adding in a postscript, "Mr. 
Gordon distinguished himself in the discussion in the 
House of Delegates." 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON loi 

Six days later, with ready generosity in accepting 
his share of responsibility for the failure in the 
House of Delegates of a bill to pay the debts of the 
University, Mr. Cabell wrote his next letter to Jeffer- 
son. The House journal of February lo, 1823, re- 
cites that "a motion was made by Mr. Gordon that 
this House do come to the following resolution : 
Resolved, That the Committee of Finance be in- 
structed to inquire into the best means of providing 
for the payment of the debts of the University of 
Virginia; and make report thereof by bill or other- 
wise. And the question being put thereupon, was de- 
termined in the negative." 

Cabell wrote to Jefferson on the day following: 

"Yesterday Mr. Gordon moved in the House of 
Delegates the adoption of a resolution authorizing 
the Committee of Finance to inquire and report to 
the House the best means of paying the debts of the 
University. It was rejected by an overwhelming ma- 
jority. To-day a similar resolution was moved by 
Mr. Loyall, and supported by Mr. Baldwin. The 
vote was seventy odd to ninety odd. The subject is 
at rest for this session. Some of the friends of the 
University were opposed to bringing forward the 
motion at this session. However, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
Loyall, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Taylor (of Botetourt), 
Mr. Bowyer, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Watkins (of Gooch- 
land), General Tucker, &c. &c., being of opinion that 
the character of the present Legislature having 
shown itself to be very favorable, we should not lose 
the opportunity it might afford for getting the debt 
remitted; and the measure being right in itself, and 
important to the State, I entirely concurred in the 
movement of the question, and wish to share with my 
friend Gordon in the responsibility arising out of the 
proceeding. I know our indulgent friends would 
forgive us, if we had done wrong. But the failure 
of the proposition does not demonstrate that we were 



102 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

wrong. We have broken the Ice, and prepared the 
public mind for a future appHcation. Besides, If 
such men as I have named above, agreed with us, the 
movement must have been justified by appearances. 
We could not dive Into the hearts of members." 

In the session of 1823-24, Gordon was again a 
member of the House from Albemarle, and his col- 
league was once more Jefferson's son-in-law. Colonel 
Thomas Mann Randolph, who having served as a 
member of the Senate In 1793-94, and as a represent- 
ative in Congress from 1803 to 1807, had exhibited 
an ardent and conspicuous patriotism in the War of 
18 12, and in 18 19 had been elected Governor of Vir- 
ginia while a member of the House of Delegates. 
Cabell was still in the Senate from the district, with 
his thoughts fixed on the University, and continuing 
his correspondence, which detailed on his part Its 
legislative progress, with Its great originator. 
Money was yet the desideratum; and the Univer- 
sity's future was dependent upon the attitude of the 
General Assembly towards it in the matter of finan- 
cial assistance. In his letter of January 29, 1824, 
Cabell emphasized the value of that part of the 
organic law of the University which provided that 
"the University shall be at all times and in all things 
subject to the control of the General Assembly." 

"I have now the gratification to enclose to you by 
our friend Mr. Garrett," he wrote to Jefferson, "a 
copy of the University Act of the present session. It 
passed the Senate unanimously. Attempts were 
made to amend It; but we were determined to pass 
the bill as it came to us, because our friends in the 
other house warned us of the imminent danger of its 
return. I was ill In bed when the proviso to which 
you so much object was added to the bill. It was 
deemed perfectly harmless by our friends, and useful 
as furnishing an excuse to join us. We are all con- 
cerned to find you so much opposed to it, and still 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 103 

hope you will be reconciled. After it was proposed, 
it would have been difficult to resist it; and when en- 
grafted on the bill, an attempt to strike it from the 
bill would have endangered our success. We had 
always plumed ourselves on our democratic char- 
acter. We had fought the college party with that 
clause in our charter which says 'the University shall 
be at all times and in all things subject to the control 
of the General Assembly.' We were seizing on all 
occasions to engraft a similar provision on new char- 
ters. If on this we had shown a distrust incom- 
patible with former professions, our good faith 
would have been impeached, and we should have 
alienated our most powerful friend, the General 
Assembly of the State. The annuity cannot be with- 
drawn but by a concurrent vote of the two houses, 
and I think the time will never come when such a 
vote will be obtained. Such is the opinion of all the 
four Visitors in town. We shall want further aid in 
future, and It would be unfortunate to lose any por- 
tion of the favor we now possess. Col. Randolph 
concurs In these views. So does Mr. Gordon." 

Again Gordon was returned to the House for the 
session of 1824-25, where we find him still standing 
sentinel, with Mr. Cabell in the Senate, over the In- 
terests of the University. On February 18, 1825, 
he wrote to Mrs. Gordon: "My anxiety to be with 
my family increases as the time draws near when I 
am to meet them. I think we cannot sit longer than 
another week. Indeed, except one, we have no im- 
portant question before us. The University appro- 
priation you will have seen from the papers was car- 
ried by a great vote. I had some hope that we could 
have gotten the debt relinquished that thev owe to 
the Literary Fund; but that will come, of course." 

On March 7, 1825, Mr. Jefferson's cherished 
dream was realized. The University opened with 
sixty students, who by the following first of October 
had grown in numbers to one hundred and sixteen. 



I04 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Gordon was again returned to the House of Dele- 
gates from Albemarle; where he remained in con- 
tinuous service till 1829, in which year he was again 
elected to the House, and also to the House of Rep- 
resentatives of the United States Congress, and to 
the Constitutional Convention of 1829-30. He de- 
clined further service in the House of Delegates, and 
after serving in the convention throughout its ses- 
sions, took his seat in Congress. Mr. Cabell's long 
and uninterrupted service in the Senate of Virginia 
terminated in the same year as that of Gordon in the 
House of Delegates. He retired to private life, con- 
tinuing, however, his association with the University 
as one of its Visitors from 18 19 to 1856, the date of 
his death, during which period he was the Rector in 
1 834-1 836, and again from 1845 to 1856. 

The time between Gordon's entrance upon his leg- 
islative career in the General Assembly in 18 18 and 
its termination in 1829 had been the crucial period 
with the University of Virginia. During that period 
his colleagues from Albemarle had been numerous. 
They had come and gone, rendering what assistance 
they could during their stay — assistance which was 
very often valuable; yet lacking in the steady conti- 
nuity which characterized his eleven years of devo- 
tion, and Cabell's even larger number, to Mr. Jeffer- 
son's noble scheme. Early in that service Gordon 
had come to be one of the most influential members 
of the House of Delegates. His prominence is illus- 
trated in his long and conspicuous occupancy of the 
chairmanship of the Committee on Courts of Justice; 
and his membership of the two important committees 
of Finance and of Schools and Colleges gave oppor- 
tunity of rendering his labor in behalf of the Uni- 
versity effective. 

In July, 1826, Mr. Jefferson was dead; but his 
coadjutors in the legislature continued to cherish the 
welfare of his great educational institution, now 
firmly established, as they cherished the memories of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORLON 105 

their personal associations with him, and their ad- 
herence to his political principles. In his last letter 
to Mr. Cabell, the venerable statesman, harassed and 
burdened by debt, and troubled with many cares, 
still evinced his abiding interest in the institution. 
On April 21, 1826, he wrote from Monticello: 
"We have now one hundred and sixty-six students; 
and on the opening of the law-school, we expect to 
have our dormitories filled. Order and industry 
nearly complete, and sensibly improving every day." 
On January 8, 1827, the journal of the House of 
Delegates testifies to Gordon's continued association 
with the University as "its local representative and 
one of its most zealous friends," as Mr. Jefferson 
had denominated him years before: "On motion of 
Mr. Gordon, Resolved, That the Report of the 
Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia be 
referred to the Committee of Schools and Colleges, 
with leave to report by bill or otherwise" ; and on 
January 27 the journal contains this entry: 

"On motion of Mr. Gordon, ordered that two 
hundred and fifty copies of the Governor's communi- 
cation, together with the accompanying documents, 
relating to the University of Virginia, be printed for 
the use of members of the General Assembly." 

Again, in 1827, we find him seeking to induce a 
hostile House of Delegates to consent to pay the 
debts of the University. An entry in the House 
journal on the 23d of February of that year is: "A 
motion was made by Mr. Gordon that the House 
adopt the following resolution : Resolved, That 
leave be given to bring in a bill 'to pay the debts and 
finish the buildings of the University,' which was de- 
feated by a vote of sixty-six ayes to one hundred and 
eighteen noes." 

When, in 1829, he retired from the General 
Assembly to enter upon the larger field of national 



io6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

politics, it was with the consciousness that he had 
rendered no insignificant service in aiding to fashion 
into a reahty the splendid dream which had inspired 
the declining years of Jefferson. 



CHAPTER VII 

IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY SOME OF ITS MEMBERS 

THE OFFICE OF GOVERNOR 

During Gordon's membership in the House of 
Delegates the General Assembly of Virginia was 
rich in men of a high order of ability, many of whom 
subsequently achieved great distinction for states- 
manship or judicial acquirements. His successive 
colleagues in the House from Albemarle County con- 
tained in their number several figures of conspicuous 
talents; and in more than one instance they rose to 
lofty public eminence. Any account of the times in 
Virginia would be inadequate which failed to contain 
some mention of those citizens who illustrated the 
character, the capacity and the qualifications of the 
legislator of the period, in the legislative halls of the 
Commonwealth. It was very often from the ranks 
of the General Assembly that the Governors of the 
State and its United States Senators were chosen; 
and these in turn, after having filled their high offices, 
esteemed it no unworthy honor to return again to the 
Capitol in Richmond as representatives of local con- 
stituencies. 

For the period of Gordon's service in the House 
as a delegate, its clerk and keeper of the rolls was 
George Wythe Munford, who occupied the position 
for a long series of years, and who has left in his 
volume, "The Two Parsons," a notable account of 
many of the prominent figures of his day and gener- 
ation in the Commonwealth. Munford himself was 
a man of ability and of engaging personality; and 
his wide acquaintance with his contemporaries of 
public importance entitles him to a conspicuous posi- 
tion in any narrative of the legislative events of the 
time. He was elected Clerk of the House of Dele- 



io8 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

gates in 1825, and continued In the office for twenty- 
seven successive years by unanimous votes. He was 
elected in 1829, upon its assembling in Richmond, 
Clerk of the Constitutional Convention of 1829-30; 
but resigned that office after two months, because It 
conflicted with his duties as Clerk of the House of 
Delegates. He was at a later period Secretary of 
the Commonwealth; and in his long public career 
gained perhaps a larger acquaintance than was pos- 
sessed by any other individual of his generation with 
the history and forms of state legislation, and with 
the condition of the accounts and claims of the State. 
Governor Henry A. Wise said of him in his later 
years that he was "intus et in cute a Virginian, Im- 
bued with their prejudices, their pride, their passions, 
their grace and their glory!" 

During his long tenure of the office of Clerk of the 
House many notable Virginians filled the Speaker's 
chair : James Barbour, Governor, Senator, Minister 
to England; Andrew Stevenson, Speaker of the 
United States House of Representatives; Robert 
Stanard, Judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals of 
Virginia; Linn Banks, accomplished parliamentarian 
and able debater, and United States Congressman; 
Thomas Walker Gilmer, Governor and Secretary of 
War; William O. Goode, three times elected 
Speaker, member of Congress, and a member of the 
convention which made the Constitution of 1850; 
and Valentine W. Southall, who was one of the ablest 
lawyers of his day in the Commonwealth. Of these 
Speakers of the House, Barbour, Stevenson, Stanard, 
Banks, Gilmer and Southall, all came from Gordon's 
section of the State, along the eastern base of the 
Blue Ridge Mountains, which John Randolph had 
called "The Red Hills of Piedmont," and hailed as 
the home of greatness. 

Munford, in addition to his clerical services, com- 
piled and published a revision of the Code of Vir- 
ginia in i860, and another edition in 1873; and 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 109 

wrote "The Two Parsons" at a later date. He died 
in January, 1882, aged seventy-nine years. 

Another and more picturesque figure in the halls 
of legislation during Gordon's stay in the House was 
its Sergeant-at-Arms, Peter Francisco, the remark- 
able soldier of the Revolution, of whom it was said 
that "he used a sword having a blade five feet in 
length, which he could wield as a feather, and every 
swordsman who came in contact with him paid the 
forfeit of his life. His services were so distinguished 
that he would have been promoted to an office had he 
been enabled to write. His stature was six feet and 
an inch, and his weight two hundred and sixty pounds 

* * * Such was his personal strength that he 
could easily shoulder a cannon weighing eleven hun- 
dred pounds." He had engaged in the battles of 
Brandywine and Monmouth in the North, and the 
Cowpens, Camden and Guilford Court House in the 
South; and was famous throughout the country for 
having defeated in 178 1, single-handed, nine of 
General Banastre Tarleton's dragoons, in sight of a 
troop of four hundred of their comrades. Francisco 
had obtained the position of sergeant-at-arms of the 
House through the influence of Colonel Charles 
Yancey, Gordon's commander in the War of 1812; 
and at the time of Munford's election to the clerk- 
ship was a man well advanced in years. In spite of 
his age, however, Munford writes of him : "In those 
days I have seen old Peter Francisco, the giant ser- 
geant-at-arms, so renowned in Revolutionary times 
for his herculean strength, grasp a stout man by the 
collar with his left hand, and raising him from the 
floor with perfect ease, walk with him out of the 
house for having improperly intruded within the 
bar." Francisco died in 1836. 

For the entire period of Gordon's service in the 
Virginia House of Delegates the Speaker of that 
body was Linn Banks, of the Piedmont county of 
Madison. Mr. Banks had a peculiar experience, in 



no WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

that "for twenty successive years he was Speaker of 
the House of Delegates, an office for which he was 
so peculiarly qualified that he was selected to fill it in 
all the mutations of party." He was a warm friend 
of Mr. Jefferson's project of establishing a State 
University. Mr. Banks retired from the legislature 
in 1838, and was elected to Congress in that year, to 
complete the unexpired term of John Mercer Patton, 
who resigned. He was re-elected for the two suc- 
ceeding terms. He retired to private life in 1841, 
having been defeated for Congress in that year; and 
was found drowned in the February following in a 
stream which he had to cross in going from Madison 
Court House to his home in the country. Mr. Banks 
was noted for his skill as a parliamentarian, his im- 
partiality of decision, and his urbanity of manner. 

Gordon's first associate in the General Assembly 
from Albemarle was Samuel Carr. He was the 
second son of that Dabney Carr who had moved in 
the House of Burgesses, in 1773, the resolution ap- 
pointing the Committee of Correspondence, and who 
had married Mr. Jefferson's sister, Martha. Samuel 
Carr was therefore Mr. Jefferson's nephew; and he 
was a brother of the younger Dabney Carr, who is 
frequently mentioned in Gordon's letters to his wife 
during the War of 18 12, and who later became 
Chancellor, and Judge of the Court of Appeals. 
Samuel Carr lived at "Dunlora," a few miles north 
of Charlottesville. He was a magistrate, and a colo- 
nel of State troops during the War of 18 12; and 
served one term in the House of Delegates. Eight 
years later he became a member of the State Senate 
from the district composed of Albemarle and Nelson 
counties, which was represented throughout Gordon's 
stay in the General Assembly by Joseph C. Cabell. 

Of his several other talented colleagues from the 
county during his legislative career, the second in 
point of time was Dr. Charles Everett, who lived at 
Belmont, adjacent to the Edgehill estate of Governor 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON iii 

Thomas Mann Randolph, until 1821, and later at 
Everettsville, in the same neighborhood, A local his- 
torian says of Dr. Everett that "he was a man of 
great talent in his profession, reserved in disposition, 
and possessed of an indomitable will. Rather sus- 
picious of men in general, he was yet warm-hearted 
and liberal when their sincerity was proved, and con- 
sequently was slow in making friends, but very 
tenacious in holding them. He was a keen observer 
of human nature and its various workings, and often 
used the knowledge thus gained to the surprise and 
benefit of his many patients. Save in a few instances 
he was a disbeliever in medicines, and held that the 
physician's highest aim should be to assist nature, 
rather than coerce her. 

"He graduated in medicine at the University of 
Pennsylvania in 1796, and with a short interruption 
continued the practice of his profession until his 
death. The break in his medical career mentioned 
occurred in 18 17, when he became the private secre- 
tary of President Monroe, and afterwards a repre- 
sentative in the State legislature from the county of 
Albemarle. Soon quitting politics, he returned to 
his profession, and in a short time became one of the 
most famous physicians in the State. Besides Albe- 
marle, his practice extended over seven adjoining 
counties, and at one time he was called to attend 
Bishop Madison in Richmond. He was also one of 
the consulting physicians in the last illness of Mr. 
Jefferson. Though they were such close neighbors, 
they were far from being close political friends; and 
even the little friendship they had nearly vanished 
when Jefferson looked up, and seeing Dr. Everett 
one of the three, said with a touch of grim humor : 
'Whenever I see three doctors, I generally look out 
for a turkey-buzzard.' And though Jefferson meant 
it as one of his jokes, the sensitive doctor took it 
seriously and withdrew." 

Dr. Everett became the private secretary of 



112 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

President Monroe during the latter's second term, in 
1822, and not in 18 17, as above stated. He had 
served a term in the House of Delegates, and been 
a candidate for a later term, but was defeated in 
1822 by Mr. Rives. Gordon wrote to Mrs. Gordon 
from Richmond, December 15, 1822: "Doctor 
Everett is appointed Private Secretary to the Presi- 
dent, and has yielded the protracted but hopeless con- 
test for a seat in the legislature." 

The physician in politics appears to have been a 
not unusual figure at that time in the public eye. Dr. 
Everett was succeeded in the House of Delegates by 
Dr. Charles Cocke as one of the two Albemarle 
representatives. Dr. Cocke is said to have been 
"distinguished in the State as one of the ablest of its 
political writers and debaters." He served one term 
in the Llouse; and after 1830 was for a number of 
years State Senator from the district. 

Dr. Cocke's successor in the House from Albe- 
marle was Mr. William Cabell Rives, Gordon's near 
neighbor, who served with him for one term, in 
1822-23. Mr. Rives is described by a contemporary 
as " a small man, very much like his father, with a 
fair complexion, chestnut hair, blue eyes, and hand- 
some features. He was a conspicuous figure in the 
politics of his period, and achieved distinguished 
position as representative in Congress, United States 
Senator, and Minister to France. His career amply 
justified the inscription upon his tombstone at 
Walker's Church, near Castle Hill, that he was a 
statesman, a diplomatist and a historian." 

Upon Mr. Rives' election to Congress in 1823 he 
was succeeded in the House of Delegates by Jeffer- 
son's son-in-law, Colonel Thomas Mann Randolph, 
of whom sorr i account has been given in a preceding 
chapter. After serving one term, Colonel Randolph 
retired; and was followed in the office of delegate 
by Rice W. Wood, a young lawyer of Albemarle, who 
had only been admitted to the bar three years earlier, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 113 

and who for three later terms was a member of the 
House, dying while he was a delegate, in 1832, and 
as has been pathetically said of him, "on the 
threshold of a promising career." That he was a 
man of ability and distinction in his community is 
evidenced by his frequent election to this position 
from a county whose representatives stood in the 
very forefront of the talent of the State. 

In 1827 and 1828 Dr. Cocke was again in the 
House; and Gordon's associate in the last year of his 
service as delegate from Albemarle was Hugh Nel- 
son, of "Belvoir," then an elderly man, who had 
already been a member of the House of Delegates 
and its Speaker; and after having represented the 
district in Congress by successive re-elections from 
181 1 to 1823, when Mr. Rives succeeded him, had 
been appointed in the last named year as United 
States Minister to Spain. 

It was an illustrious representation of the gi'eatest 
of the counties lying among the Red Hills of Pied- 
mont, which had carried on its rolls, as members of 
the House of Burgesses of the Colony, and of the 
General Assembly of the Commonwealth, since Albe- 
marle had become a county in 1744, down to the 
Constitutional Convention of 1829-30, the names of 
Peter Jefferson, father of the President; Thomas 
Jefferson, himself; William Cabell, and William Ca- 
bell, Jr.; Thomas Walker of Castle Hill, John 
Walker of Belvoir, Charles Lewis, Edward Carter, 
George Gilmer, Wilson Cary Nicholas, Joshua Fry, 
Walter Leake, William Waller Hening, Francis 
Walker, James Monroe, Tucker Coles, Hugh Nelson, 
William C, Rives, Thomas Mann Randolph, and 
others, whose civic achievements were no less honor- 
able, and are less conspicuous only in degree. 

The General Assembly of Virginia during the first 
half of the nineteenth century was distinguished for 
the high order of ability, the political knowledge and 



114 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

acumen, and the lofty personal character of Its mem- 
bers. It was the training-school of a statesmanship 
that not only made the Commonwealth notable in 
her local administration and character among her as- 
sociate States, but that gave her an imposing and 
commanding influence through a long period in the 
larger affairs and the more expanded life of the na- 
tion. It was the theatre on which were discussed, 
with an intelligence, an ability and an eloquence sel- 
dom excelled, the great questions of constitutional 
interpretation and governmental administration; and 
which at times caused the local legislation of the 
State to seem a secondary matter in comparison. 
The Virginia Resolutions, the Kentucky Resolutions, 
the Missouri Compromise, Nullification, the Bank of 
the United States, the Removal of the Deposits, 
Slavery — all these were issues which were regarded 
as important for the consideration of the General 
Assembly in their turn, and were debated and passed 
upon by resolution with a larger zeal and enthusiasm 
than characterized the discussion and enactment, in 
most instances, of State legislation. It was the 
forum where the Virginian aspirant for political dis- 
tinction learned the best lessons of his profession; 
and where, no less, many who had realized high 
honors in the larger life of the Union esteemed it 
still a distinction to serve their country by serving 
their State. 

Space does not permit the introduction here of all 
of Gordon's contemporaries in the General Assembly 
who were prominent, or even of all of those who 
were highly distinguished. But his association with 
the legislation establishing and affecting the Uni- 
versity of Virginia was such that some account of 
those who, with Mr. Cabell and himself, were most 
conspicuous in advancing and maintaining the cause 
of Mr. Jefferson's educational enterprise, seems not 
only appropriate but necessary. 

Of Mr. Cabell himself it needs only to be said 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 115 

that he was a member of the General Assembly, 
either as delegate or Senator, for about thh"ty years; 
that he was a Visitor and the Rector of the Uni- 
versity, which he did so much to create; that he was 
"a man of national reputation," and that he is said to 
have "declined Cabinet appointments under Mr. 
Monroe, if not Mr. Madison." His greatest fame, 
however, will continue to rest upon his connection 
with the establishment of the University of Virginia, 
as illustrated in his correspondence with Mr. Jeffer- 
son. 

Conspicuous among the friends of the University 
in the House was Briscoe G. Baldwin, of Augusta 
County. In the debate on the University bill in the 
House in January, 18 19, Mr. Baldwin, who had 
made an earnest fight for Staunton as the site for the 
University, now came forward "with a magnanimity 
only equalled by his eloquence to invoke the house to 
unite in support of the University." Of Baldwin's 
part In this debate Cabell wrote to Jefferson on Jan- 
uary 18, 1 8 19: 

"Having left the House before the critical vote on 
the site, to avoid the shock of feeling which I should 
have been compelled to sustain, I did not hear Mr. 
Baldwin. But I am told the scene was truly affecting. 
A great part of the House was in tears; and on the 
rising of the House, the eastern members hovered 
around Mr. Baldwin * * * Such magnanimity 
in a defeated adversary excited universal applause." 

Baldwin served in the legislature from 18 18 to 
1820; and was a member of the Convention of 
1829-30. He was again elected to the General As- 
sembly from Augusta in 1841, and while a delegate 
was chosen to fill a place on the bench of the Court 
of Appeals of Virginia. 

A later member from Augusta, who is mentioned 
in the Jefferson-Cabell correspondence as interested 



ii6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

on behalf of University legislation, was Chapman 
Johnson, who was in the House in the session of 
1 822-1 823. His aspirations were legal rather than 
political ; and he had great and deserved reputation 
as an able lawyer. He also was a member of the 
Convention of 1829-30; and was a Visitor and sub- 
sequently the Rector of the University. 

Another prominent friend of the University, fre- 
quently mentioned by Mr. Cabell in his letters to 
Mr. Jefferson, was General James Breckinridge of 
Botetourt County. General Breckinridge was for 
several years, at a period prior to the agitation of the 
University project, a member of the General As- 
sembly, and a Federalist leader in that body. He 
represented the Botetourt district in Congress from 
1809 to 1 8 17; and was a candidate of his party 
against James Monroe for Governor of the State. 
General Breckinridge was a brother of John Breck- 
inridge, of Kentucky, who had at one time practised 
law in Albemarle County, and who introduced in the 
Legislature of that State the famous "Kentucky Res- 
olutions of 1798," drawn by Mr. Jefferson, Nicholas 
and himself. General Breckinridge was a member 
of the first Board of Visitors of the University, 
which consisted of Mr. Jefferson, who was the 
Rector, Mr. Madison, Mr. Chapman Johnson, Gen- 
eral Breckinridge, Mr. Robert B. Taylor, General 
John H. Cocke and Mr. Joseph C. Cabell. At the 
time of his advocacy of the University's interests 
General Breckinridge had returned to the General 
Assembly as a member of the House from Botetourt. 

Yet another member of the House of Delegates, 
conspicuous for the zeal and ability with which he 
supported the University measures, was Mr. George 
Loyall, of Norfolk. Mr. Loyall was born at Nor- 
folk, Septem.ber 11, 1789. He was wont to say of 
himself that he "came in with the Constitution." He 
was educated at William and Mary College; and 
afterwards went to England, and spent two years in 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 117 

London. He began the practice of law in his native 
town about 1823, and in 1825 was elected from Nor- 
folk to the House of Delegates. His talents were of 
a commanding character, and he was in 1829-30 a 
member of the Constitutional Convention; and in 
1829 was a candidate for Congress from the Nor- 
folk District. The certificate of election was 
awarded to his opponent, Mr. Thomas Newton; 
but Mr. Loyall contested the election. On the mo- 
tion "that George Loyall is entitled to a seat in the 
2ist Congress of the United States, as the representa- 
tive from the district in Virginia composed of the 
counties of Norfolk, Nansemond, Elizabeth City, 
Princess Anne and the Borough of Norfolk," he was 
awarded the seat by a substantial majority. This 
victory was followed by his re-election to the 22nd 
Congress, "badly defeating his opponent who had 
been entrenched for a long period in that position." 
During his service in the General Assembly, the Con- 
vention, and these two sessions of Congress, a warm 
friendship sprang up between Gordon and Mr. 
Loyall, which was illustrated by the former's giving 
one of his sons, born in 1829, the name of his friend. 
Mr. Loyall was subsequently appointed Naval Agent 
at Norfolk by President Jackson, and reappointed 
by President Polk; and continued in the office until 
the period of the War between the States. He was 
for a number of years an influential member of the 
Board of Visitors of the University. Mr. Loyall 
was a stalwart supporter of "the schools of Jeffer- 
sonian and Jacksonian democracy, and a strong ad- 
vocate of free trade." In the dissensions that arose 
among the Democrats over the Bank Controversy, 
Nullification, and other questions of the period, Gor- 
don, as hereafter narrated, antagonized the adminis- 
tration of Jackson; but his friendship and admira- 
tion for Mr. Loyall continued as long as he lived. 
Mr. Loyall's death occurred in Norfolk in February, 
1868. 



ii8 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Conspicuous among the younger members of the 
House of Delegates in the later sessions of Gordon's 
membership was James Murray Mason, grandson of 
George Mason, of Gunston, the author of the "Bill 
of Rights," himself destined to add lustre to a great 
Virginia name as United States Senator, author of 
the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and commissioner 
to England, with John Slidell, in 1861 from the Con- 
federate States of America. He was a strict con- 
structionist of the State-Rights party, and during his 
service in the Senate of the United States was in the 
thick of the fray over slavery. For the Virginians of 
the old school his name was indelibly associated with 
the pathetic scene in the Senate in 1850, when he 
read to that august body, in the presence of its author, 
vvho sat by him with the mark of death on his face, 
the last speech of John C. Calhoun, whose theme was 
the tremendous question, "How can the Union be 
preserved?" 

Within the period of Gordon's activities in the 
House of Delegates the Governors of the Common- 
wealth were James P. Preston, from December i, 
18 16, to December i, 18 19; Thomas Mann Ran- 
dolph, from December i, 18 19, to December i, 
1822; James Pleasants, Jr., from December i, 1822, 
to December i, 1825 ; John Tyler from December i, 
1825, to March, 1827; and William B. Giles from 
March, 1827, to March, 1830. 

The office of Governor, from 1776, was esteemed 
by the earlier Virginians as the most exalted 
and distinguished public position in the gift of the 
Virginia people; and it was no uncommon thing in 
the later half of the eighteenth and the first half of 
the nineteenth century for a United States Senator 
to resign his seat in the Federal Senate to assume the 
executive duties of Governor of Virginia. The roll 
of those who have occupied the office from the begin- 
ning has been and continues a highly honorable one; 
but the earlier names of the Chief Magistrates of the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 119 

State appear in the lapse of time to shine with an 
ever-increasing lustre. Beginning with Patrick 
Henry, they embrace, among others less distin- 
guished only in degree, those of Thomas Jefferson, 
Thomas Nelson, junior; Benjamin Harrison, Ed- 
mund Randolph, Beverly Randolph, Henry Lee, 
Robert Brooke, James Monroe, John Page of "Rose- 
well," William H. Cabell, John Tyler, Peyton Ran- 
dolph, James Barbour, and Wilson Gary Nicholas; 
the last named being the immediate predecessor of 
Governor Preston. Under the Constitution of 1776, 
and also under that of 1829-30, the Governor was 
elected by the joint ballot of the two houses of the 
General Assembly, as in the case of United States 
Senators; and this method of election continued until 
the Constitution of 1850, when the office became 
elective by the people. 

Governor Preston was one of that distinguished 
family, among whose members have been orators, 
statesmen and soldiers, who have illustrated in their 
civic and military careers the virtues and talents of 
the Scotch-Irishman in America. John Preston, the 
grandfather of Governor James P. Preston, emi- 
grated to Pennsylvania from Londonderry, and came 
thence with the tide of Scotch-Irish immigration 
southward, which, settling the Shenandoah Valley of 
Virginia, passed onward into the Mecklenburg sec- 
tion of North Carolina, and spread its children and 
descendants throughout the Southwest and the West. 
He served in the State Senate, and during the War of 
18 12 was a colonel in the United States Army, and 
was wounded in the battle of Chrystler's Field. In 
his administration the University of Virginia was 
established, and a Revision of the Code of Virginia 
was made. 

Of Preston's successor in the Executive office. Col- 
onel Thomas Mann Randolph, some account has 
been given in the preceding pages. He was followed 
by Governor James Pleasants, junior, who had 



I20 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

already had' a large experience In public life. He 
had represented the county of Goochland in the 
House of Delegates, and in 1803 had been chosen 
clerk of that body, which office he filled for seven 
years. Subsequently he was elected to Congress, 
where he remained until 18 19. In 18 19 he was 
elected Senator from Virginia, and held that office 
at the time he was elected Governor in 1822. 

On December 15, 1822, Gordon wrote from 
Richmond to Mrs. Gordon at Edgeworth, "We have 
elected Mr. Pleasants of the Senate of the United 
States our Governor; and Colonel John Taylor of 
Caroline will most probably take his place." Later 
he served in the Constitutional Convention of 1829- 
30. It has been said of him that "although twice 
appointed to judicial position, he declined the 
honors offered him, and retired to Goochland Coun- 
ty, where on November 9, 1836, he closed a well- 
spent life. He died universally regretted and 
greatly esteemed for his many public and private 
virtues." 

One of his great characteristics as a successful 
politician was his ability to make and keep friends. 
"James Pleasants never made an enemy nor lost a 
friend," was the noble eulogium bestowed upon him 
by John Randolph of Roanoke. 

In a letter to his wife written soon after Gover- 
nor Pleasants' election by the legislature to the office 
of Governor, Gordon gives the following graphic 
and pleasing pen-picture of him: 

"He is rather beyond the ordinary height, a little 
inclined to corpulency, with a form apparently mus- 
cular, and indicating more of strength than agility. 
His countenance is expressive of a composed good- 
ness of heart; and the plainness of his first manner 
shows you at one glance how superior is the native 
quakcrism of his address to any affectation of dig- 
nity which his high station In life may be supposed 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 121 

to require. His hair is red, his complexion san- 
guineous, the forehead not high or full, but 
broader than usual, the eyebrows small and dispro- 
portionate to the face and forehead. His eyes are 
full, large and blue, with an expression of softness 
and sense. His mouth is large, and expresses, to- 
gether with the eyes, a natural willingness to smile. 
His whole appearance and manner indicate an 
amiability of heart and a virtuous moderation, which, 
while it seems to yield to the opinions and wishes of 
others, excites in them a confidence that so much 
goodness, patience and sense can be rarely wrong; 
and you sec at once that his influence, like oil, 
smoothes the asperities and roughnesses of govern- 
ment and makes the whole machinery play cheerily 
together." 

Of the two other Governors of Gordon's legisla- 
tive experience, Tyler and Giles, accounts are given 
in subsequent pages. 



CHAPTER VIII 

IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY POLITICS AND POLI- 
CIES WILLIAM B. GILES. 

Although the most noteworthy and important 
work done by Gordon as a member of the General 
Assembly was that In connection with the establish- 
ment of the University of Virginia, his life as a 
legislator was a diligent and industrious one; and he 
left a marked impress upon the legislation of the 
period. 

The posthumous reputation of his oratorical 
power, a gift with which he was unusually endowed, 
even in that day of oratory and forensic expression, 
has served to obscure the just proportions of his 
eminence as a lawyer. In the earlier years of his 
professional career he had been a diligent student 
of law as a science; and his knowledge of the prin- 
ciples of the subject was substantial and accurate. 
From the time of his first election to the House of 
Delegates he was an Influential member of the Com- 
mittee on Courts of Justice, and during much the 
larger part of his service its chairman. It was no 
Inconsplcious tribute to his legal ability to have held 
this position In a body for the most part composed of 
lawyers of ability, the strongest of whom were the 
members of this committee. 

When he entered Congress his legal acquirements 
were at once recognized by the Speaker, Mr. An- 
drew Stevenson, himself a Virginian, and familiar 
with Gordon's standing in his profession. In his ap- 
pointment to the much coveted position of a mem- 
ber of the Judiciary Committee of the House. In 
1824, when chairman of the Committee of Courts 
of Justice of the House of Delegates, he performed 
a notable work In connection with the consolidation 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 123 

for the first time into one act of the several acts 
fixing the fees of officers. In 1827 he reported from 
the same committee, with amendments, "a bill to 
prescribe the method of proceeding in suits or peti- 
tions for divorce," and "a bill providing for a re- 
vision of the laws concerning the judiciary, and judi- 
cial proceedings," both of which measures bear the 
impress of his knowledge and labor; and these were 
followed in the same year by "a bill to punish the 
attempt to poison," "a bill for the further limitation 
of real actions," and "a bill for changing the 
punishment of free negroes and mulattoes in certain 
cases," which were also in large measure the results 
of his acquirements and industry. In 1828 he still 
continued to occupy the chairmanship of this com- 
mittee, and reported the important bill requiring all 
clerks "to index deeds in the name of both grantor 
and grantee," a requirement which previously had 
not existed in the Commonwealth. At the same ses- 
sion he reported various bills, "concerning pleas," 
"concerning the statute of descents and distributions," 
"concerning the limitations of actions," and "con- 
cerning motions against sheriffs." Where he was 
not himself the author and draftsman of these sev- 
eral measures, which formulated much of the statute 
law of the period, he always supervised and directed 
them with such a knowledge of their scope and sig- 
nificance as enabled him to discuss them in debate 
intelligently, and generally with success. In an epoch 
when the journals of the legislature disclose that the 
enactment of innumerable laws was not the prevail- 
ing conception of legislative duty, and when the dis- 
cussion of great governmental principles was re- 
garded as of no less importance than the making of 
statutes, Gordon appears to have been equally indus- 
trious, energetic and forceful in either direction. 

In a letter to his wife in December, 18 18, during 
the first session of his legislative service he gives the 
following account of the routine life of a delegate: 



124 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"I have not read as much as I expected I should, 
although I have found some time to occupy in that 
way. I go on committee directly after breakfast, 
where I remain till the House meets, and there until 
three o'clock; after which I have to get dinner, and 
then it is night. So that the life of a Virginian law- 
maker is one of no ordinary toil, if he does his duty." 

Of the politics of the period he possessed a kno\v 
ledge, founded upon extensive reading and a culti- 
vated familiarity with passing public events, which 
gave him great influence in his application of it, in 
discussion and debate, to the principles which were 
profoundly rooted in his conception of republican 
government. The Jeffersonian ideas of individualism, 
of economy and simplicity in the affairs of adminis- 
tration, of antagonism to the centralizing tenden- 
cies of the Hamiltonian Federalists, and of the basic 
right of the people to local self-government, were 
fixed principles with him. "Freedom of religion, 
freedom of the press, freedom of commerce, no sus- 
pension of habeas corpus, and no standing army"- — 
this formulation by Jefferson of the underlying 
meaning of constitutional democracy contained for 
Gordon the very essence of liberty. For the sage 
of Monticello himself he entertained a reverence 
and respect that were founded upon his political 
opinions and emphasized by an intimate and per- 
sonal affection. The feeling was one which charac- 
terized all the younger men of the Jeffersonian school 
who came within the sphere of Mr. Jefferson's per- 
sonal influence and charm. After the war between 
the States was ended, and Gordon had long since 
passed from the field of action, this attitude to- 
wards their great leader was aptly expressed in con- 
versation by one of them then surviving, Mr, Hugh 
Blair Grigsby, in the observation, "It Is hard for 
those of a later generation to realize how we young 
Republicans loved Mr. Jefferson." 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 125 

It was no insignificant quality of the man who 
could inspire the wrath of Federalists, like Luther 
Martin, to exhaust their expletives in denouncing 
their enemies as being "as great scoundrels as Tom 
Jefferson," that he was enabled to win to himself 
not only the intellects but the ardent affections of his 
political followers. 

Virginia, during the period of Gordon's service 
in the legislature, was strongly under the spell of 
Mr, Jefferson's dominating influence and opinion; 
and the General Assembly of the State took no small 
part in impressing that influence on the country at 
large by the frequent discussion of governmental 
principles and the ofl5cial adoption of political re- 
solves. So we find Gordon, in 1820, advocating and 
supporting the resolutions offered and adopted 
in regard to the Missouri Compromise — a state 
paper so striking in its enunciation of the tenets of 
Jcffersonian republicanism as to warrant its repro- 
duction here in full. It was one of the early bugle- 
blasts from the South which sounded the alarm of 
a later and tremendous tragic conflict over State- 
Rights and Slavery. Missouri was seeking admis- 
sion to the Union; and the General Assembly of 
Virginia in these resolutions expressed to the Con- 
gress of the United States the opinion of the people 
of Virginia upon the question of the terms of her 
admission. 

"i. That the Congress of the United States have 
no power under the Federal Constitution to dictate 
to the people of the Missouri territory what prin- 
ciples shall gov^ern them in the formation of their 
constitution or system of government or in the adop- 
tion of regulations respecting their property, but 
are simply bound to guarantee to them (in common 
with the other States) a republican form of govern- 
ment. 

"2. That the Congress of the United States are 



126 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

bound in good faith by the treaty of cession of 1805 
to admit the good people of the Missouri Territory 
into the Union upon equal terms with the existing 
States. 

"3. That the General Assembly of Virginia will 
support the good people of Missouri in their just 
rights to admission into the Union, and will co- 
operate with them in resisting with manly fortitude 
any attempt which Congress may make to impose 
restraints or restrictions, as the price of their admis- 
sion, not authorized by the great principles of the 
Constitution, and in violation of their rights, liberty 
and happiness. 

"4. That the Senators from this State in the Con- 
gress of the United States be instructed, and the rep- 
resentatives requested, to use their best efforts in 
procuring the admission of the State of Missouri 
into the Union, upon the principles contained in the 
foregoing resolutions, and in resisting any attempt 
which shall be made in Congress to impose condi- 
tions upon the people of Missouri not warranted by 
the treaty of cession and the Constitution of the 
United States." 

These resolutions, adopted by her legislature on 
January 11, 1820, constituted Virginia's defiance to 
the attempt that had been made in the preceding 
session of Congress to forbid slavery or involuntary 
servitude in Missouri except as a punishment for 
crime, when the Territory had applied for admission 
as a State — an appearance of the slavery question 
so surprising and so sudden and so anxious, that Mr. 
Jefferson was moved to say of it, that it startled 
him "like a fire-bell in the. night." The Missouri 
bill had failed, after an acrimonious and stubborn 
struggle, which, then begun, was renewed with un- 
abated stubbornness and acrimony in the next ses- 
sion of Congress. Then the deft and guiding hand 
of Henry Clay formulated the Missouri Compromise 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 127 

Act of 1820, prohibiting slavery thenceforward 
north of the Hne of 36°3o'; and "the moderates" 
of South and North ahke supported and enacted 
it. John Randolph of Roanoke with picturesque 
vituperation denounced the Compromise Act as "a 
dirty bargain" and those who voted for it as "dough- 
faces." Jefferson wrote of it afterwards that he 
considered it " at once as the knell of the Union. 
It is hushed indeed for the moment. But this is a 
reprieve only, not a final sentence." He continued: 
"The coincidence of a marked principle, moral and 
political, with a geographical line, once conceived, 
I feared would never more be obliterated from the 
mind; that it would be recurring on every occasion, 
and renewing irritations, until it would kindle such 
mutual and mortal hatred as to render separation 
preferable to eternal discord." 

The period was one of tremendous political sig- 
nificance in its formulation of great questions of 
grave moment; and the legislature of Virginia, in 
which were gathered many of the finest intellects of 
the Commonwealth and of the country, spoke upon 
all of these, as occasion arose, with no uncertain 
sound. 

On February 12, 1820, Gordon voted with the 
majority in the House of Delegates in favor of a 
resolution declaring it to be "the opinion of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Virginia that the law of Congress 
establishing the Bank of the United States is not 
authorized by the Constitution;" thus taking position 
upon a question which later gave rise to great dis- 
sension in the Republican party, growing out of the 
removal of the deposits, the senatorial censure of 
the President of the United States, the bitterly con- 
tested "expunging resolution" of Benton, the fight 
over the "pet banks," and the final establishment of 
Gordon's great scheme of the Independent Treasury. 
The legislature's resolution opposing the establish- 
ment of the bank on the ground of its unconstitu- 



128 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

tionality was not inconsistent with its later resolu- 
tions, reported to the House of Representatives by 
Gordon, when a member of that body as hereafter 
narrated; for the last-named resolves were also based 
upon what the General Assembly of Virginia re- 
garded as an unconstitutional usurpation of authority 
by the Federal Executive, 

In the following session of 1820-21 Gordon voted 
in the House of Delegates with a majority of one 
hundred and thirty-eight against eighteen in favor 
of a vigorous declaration of the doctrine of State 
sovereignty, and a protest against the assumption 
of jurisdiction by the Federal Supreme Court in the 
case of Cohens vs. Virginia: 

"Resolved, That the Supreme Court of the United 
States have no rightful authority, under the Constitu- 
tion, to examine and correct the judgment for which 
the Commonwealth of Virginia has been 'cited and 
admonished to be and appear at the Supreme Court 
of the United States,' and that the General Assembly 
do hereby enter their most solemn protest against 
the jurisdiction of that Court over the matter." 

This pronunciamento declared the attitude of the 
Commonwealth towards what it regarded as an un- 
warranted assumption of jurisdiction over a sovereign 
State by the Supreme Court of the United States, 
then presided over by Chief Justice Marshall. The 
Cohens were indicted by the State Court at Norfolk 
for a violation of the State anti-lottery statute. The 
defendants claimed the protection of an act of Con- 
gress relating to the District of Columbia. Judg- 
ment went against them; and being without right of 
appeal to any Virginia court, they appealed directly 
to the Supreme Court of the United States. 

In February, 1826, Gordon's name is found among 
the one hundred and thirty-three ayes recorded on 
the journal of the House of Delegates as against 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 129 

twenty-three noes, in favor of a resolution declaring 
that "the imposition of taxes and duties by the Con- 
gress of the United States for the purpose of pro- 
tecting domestic manufactures is an unconstitutional 
exercise of power, and is highly oppressive and par- 
tial in its operation." 

In February, 1829, he supported with voice and 
vote a series of resolutions adopted by the House, 
which were as significant in the doctrine they as- 
serted, though not in the remedy they proposed, 
as was the nullification ordinance of South Carolina 
adopted in 1832. By them it was resolved: 

"i. That the Constitution of the United States, 
being a federative compact between sovereign States 
in construing which no common arbiter is known, 
each State has the right to construe the compact for 
itself. 

u^ * * * 

"3. That this General Assembly of Virginia, 
actuated by the desire of guarding the Constitution 
from all violation; anxious to preserve and per- 
petuate the Union, and to execute with fidelity the 
trust reposed in it by the people as one of the high 
contracting parties, feels itself bound to declare, and 
it hereby most solemnly declares, its deliberate con- 
viction that the acts of Congress, usually denominated 
the Tariff laws, passed avowedly for the protection 
of domestic manufactures, are not authorized by the 
plain construction, true intent, and meaning of the 
Constitution. Also, That the said acts are partial in 
their operation, impolitic, and oppressive to a large 
portion of the people of the Union, and ought to 
be repealed." 

The vote was one hundred and twenty-six to sev- 
enty-five in favor of the adoption of these resolves, 
which embodied a legislative expression of the Jeffer- 



I30 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

sonian republicanism of Virginia on the question of 
a protective tariff. In December, 1825, Mr. Jeffer- 
son had written to WiUiam B. Giles, with an under- 
standing which penetrated to the core of the sub- 
ject: 

"Under the power to regulate commerce, the gov- 
ernment assumes indefinitely that also over agricul- 
ture and manufactures; and calls it regulation to take 
the earnings of one of these branches of industry, 
and that, too, the most depressed, and put them into 
the pockets of the other, the most flourishing of all." 

The whole doctrine of strict constitutional con- 
struction appeared at this period to the individuals 
in the State-Rights party of Virginia, no less than 
to its General Assembly, to be threatened. Jeffer- 
son was In political retirement at Monticello, op- 
pressed with the physical infirmities of age, and 
anxious for some portion of the peace of mind to 
which he thought his services had entitled his later 
years. But his followers still looked to him as to 
an oracle. On December 10, 1825, Gordon wrote 
to him from Richmond as follows : 

"I am reluctant to intrude on your retirement, and 
certainly not disposed to involve you in the strife 
of politics. Yet a crisis in our public affairs, which 
seems to threaten all the principles of the Federal 
Constitution, emboldens me to address you. You 
see by Governor Pleasants' communication to the 
legislature that he recommends an instruction to our 
Senators, on the subjects of the tariff and roads and 
canals; whilst the sweeping message of President 
Adams leaves little room to hope that we shall be 
able to save even a vestige of the Constitution. Our 
brethren of the western part of Virginia are most 
of them friendly to the power usurped by the Gen- 
eral Government on the subject of internal improve- 
ment, their interest luring them from an impartial 
judgment. They have more than once evidenced 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 131 

in the legislature of this State their sentiment on that 
subject by voting for, as Senator, a gentleman known 
to be latitudlnary in the construction of the Consti- 
tution in that particular; whilst the General Govern- 
ment at the same time holds out inducements, which 
may fairly be called bribes to the States, and par- 
ticularly to Virginia, on this great subject. 

"What then can we do, and to whom can we look 
but to the Fathers of the Republic to aid us by their 
counsel and wisdom in sustaining the principles of 
the Government, which they have taught us to be- 
lieve were those only by which the safety of the 
States and the bonds of union could be maintained? 
Shall the authorities of the States 'fold their arms 
in inglorious indolence,' whilst we hear proclaimed 
from the President of the United States sentiments 
subversive of every principle of a limited govern- 
ment — indeed, reviving the antiquated doctrine of 
the divine right of power; spurning the opinion of 
'constituents,' lest rulers should be palsied; proclaim.- 
ing that 'Liberty is Power, and that the tenure by 
which power is held is the moral purpose of the 
Creator to exercise it for ends of beneficence,' etc? 
Is this the language of an American President acting 
under a written Constitution of defined and specified 
grants of power, or of a European despot who rules 
by the grace of God? 

"But, sir, I will not fatigue you with comments 
on this extraordinary State paper. Should you deem 
it wise that the legislature of Virginia should move 
at this time in relation to any of the subjects in which 
the rights of the States and the true interpretation 
of the Constitution are involved, any communica- 
tion you think proper to make will be treated with 
all the delicacy, which an entire confidence in your 
wisdom and a profound personal respect can in- 
spire. 

"No inducement could have tempted me to tres- 
pass on your time but where the safety and happiness 



132 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

of the community are concerned; and I have ap- 
pealed with confidence to one whose hfe has been 
devoted to the service of his country and of man- 
kind. 

"We have as yet taken no step relating to the 
University, Mr. Cabell Is absent from some family 
misfortune, and will be so until after Christmas. 
The sentiments towards the University, so far as I 
can learn, are of the most friendly kind; and I sin- 
cerely hope that we shall hereafter have little diffi- 
culty in completing the institution in a way that will 
fulfill the expectations of its friends and of the world. 
If Mr. Adams' University succeeds, we may have 
a fearful rival. With sentiments of the most per- 
fect and entire respect, Your obedient servant." 

Jefferson's reply written from Montlcello on Jan- 
uary I, 1826, just six months prior to his death, 
while exhibiting some of the Impatience which char- 
acterized much of his later correspondence, evinced 
no diminution of his intellectual powers, or of his 
fixed views upon the political questions of the period. 

"I cannot blame you," he wrote to Gordon, "If 
you have been thinking hardly of my long delay in 
answering your favor of loth ult., but knowing the 
state of my health these thoughts will vanish from 
your mind. It is now three weeks since a re-ascer- 
batlon of my painful complaint has confined me to 
the house and Indeed to my couch. Required to 
be constantly recumbent I write slowly and with 
difficulty. Yesterday for the first time I was able 
to leave the house and to resume a posture which 
enables me to begin to answer the letters which have 
been accumulating, and I take up yours first. 

"Weakened In body by Infirmities and in mind by 
age, now far gone in my eighty-third year, reading 
one newspaper only and forgetting Immediately what 
I read In that, I am unable to give counsel in cases 
of difficulty, and our present one is truly a case of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 133 

difficulty. It is but too evident that the branches 
of our foreign department of government, executive, 
judiciary, and legislative, are in combination to usurp 
the powers of the domestic branch also reserved to 
the States, and consolidate themselves into a single 
government without limitation of powers. I will 
not trouble you with details of the instances, which 
are threadbare and unheeded. The only question 
is, what is to be done? Shall we give up the ship? 
No, by heavens, while a hand remains able to keep 
the deck! Shall we, vv^ith the hotheaded Georgian, 
stand at once to our arms? Not yet, nor until the 
evil, the only greater one than separation, shall be 
all but upon us, that of living under a government 
of discretion. Between these alternatives there can 
be no hesitation. But again, what are we to do? 
I am glad I did not answer earlier, for a fortnight 
ago might have called for a different answer. Since 
that the South Carolina resolutions are become 
known, Van Buren's motion, and Baylie's proposi- 
tion to yield the power of roads and canals, provided 
it be regularly by an amendment of the Constitution, 
and guarded against abusive practices under it. We 
had better at present rest awhile on our oars, and 
see which way the tide will set in Congress and in 
the State legislatures. Perhaps it will be better for 
Virginia to follow than to take the lead in whatever 
is to be done. A majority of the people are against 
us on this question. The western States have 
especially been bribed by local considerations to aban- 
don their antient brethren, and enlist under banners 
alien to them in principles and interest. If in this 
state of things we can make such a compromise as 
Baylie proposes, we shall save, and at the same time 
improve our Constitution, for I think that with suffi- 
cient guards it will be a wholesome amendment. 
And not doubting but that it comes from the Presi- 
dent himself, we may hope its success under such 
auspices. If I had an opinion therefore, it would 



134 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

be for lying still awhile. But I have none. I have 
neither matter nor mind to form one. And I pray 
that what I have now hazarded to you as a friend 
may be sacredly locked up in your own breast. For 
abandoning, as it is time, all intermeddling to the 
generation now on the stage — the entire manage- 
ment of their own affairs, I should deem it the 
greatest of all calamities to be inflicted at this period 
of life in embroilment of which I wish never to 
think again. 

"Yesterday, the last of the year, closed the sixty- 
first of my continued service to the public. I carne 
into it as soon as of age, which was in 1764, begin- 
ning with the court of my county; then their repre- 
sentative; next, Congress; the revised Code; Gov- 
ernor; Congress; Minister Plenipotentiary; Sec- 
retary of State; Vice-President; President; Albe- 
marle and Central College; and on my return from 
Washington, the University, and I may — [illegi- 
ble]. 

"Is it not time then, dear sir, to turn me loose? 
Ever aff'y yours, 

Thomas Jefferson." 

"The hot-headed Georgian" to whom Mr. Jeffer- 
son alludes in this letter was Governor George M. 
Troup of Georgia, who a short time before had un- 
dertaken to remove from that State the Creek In- 
dians. These Indians had made a treaty with the 
United States by which they agreed to surrender 
their lands; but repudiated the treaty. The State 
of Georgia proceeded to have the lands surveyed, 
with a view to causing the speedy removal of the 
Indians. The Federal Government called on Troup 
to suspend the survey until further notice; and sent 
United States troops to Georgia under General 
Gaines. Gaines and Troup were on the point of 
hostilities. There was great excitement throughout 
the State, and Troup called on the people to "stand 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 135 

to their arms;" but at last agreed to await the nego- 
tiation of a new treaty, under which the Creeks were 
finally removed to territory beyond the Mississippi. 
The episode was a notable one in the political his- 
tory of the period. 

In spite of Mr. Jefferson's diplomatic attitude on 
the subject of Mr. Baylie's proposed amendment, 
opposition to internal improvements by the General 
Government continued to be one of the cardinal 
political tenets of Virginia republicanism; and on 
February 28, 1826, Gordon voted in the affirmative 
on the following resolution on that subject, which 
was adopted by the House of Delegates : 

"That the Congress of the United States does not 
possess the power, under the Constitution, to adopt 
a general system of internal improvements in the 
States, as a national measure;" and "that the ap- 
propriation by the Congress of the United States to 
construct roads and canals in the States is a viola- 
tion of the Constitution." 

'On the 22nd of February, 1827, on Gordon's 
motion, the report of a committee "Upon certain 
points of fundamental law and certain differing 
claims of jurisdiction between this State and the 
Government of the United States," was taken up; 
and after discussion and debate, in which he took 
a conspicious part, it was adopted on the 2d day of 
March following, upon his motion for a recorded 
vote, by the significant majority of one hundred and 
thirty-five ayes to forty-seven noes. The report is 
a masterly state paper of the period, and was penned 
by William B. Giles, who had already represented 
Virginia in the Senate of the LTnited States, and 
shortly after its composition entered upon his first 
term as Governor of the State. The preamble and 
resolutions embodied in this report of Mr. Giles 
seem to constitute so perspicuous and powerful a 



136 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

presentation of the democratic doctrine of State 
sovereignty in its ultimate significance, that they are 
given here in their entirety. 

"The General Assembly of Virginia, actuated as 
it always has been by the most sincere disposition for 
the preservation of the Union of these States, be- 
lieving that the Union can only be preserved by 
keeping the General and State governments within 
their respective spheres of action as marked out by 
the Constitution of the United States; being also 
sincerely desirous that the General Government 
should be protected in the full and free exercise of 
all the specified powers granted to it by the Con- 
stitution of the United States, and being at the same 
time deeply impressed with a sense of its own duty 
to preserve unimpaired all the rights of the people 
and government of this State conferred upon it by 
the Constitution of the State and of the United 
States, finds Itself reluctantly constrained to enter 
its most solemn protest against the usurpations of the 
General Government, as described in the Report of 
the Committee. 

"Therefore, Resolved that the General Assembly 
in behalf of the people and government of this State, 
does hereby most solemnly protest against the claim 
or exercise of any power whatever on the part of 
the General Government to make internal improve- 
ments within the limits and jurisdiction of the sev- 
eral States, and particularly within the limits of the 
State of Virginia — and also against the claim or ex- 
ercise of any power whatever asserting or Involving 
a jurisdiction over any part of the territory within 
the limits of this State, except over the objects and 
in the mode specified in the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States. 

"Resolved, In like manner that this General As- 
sembly does most solemnly protest against the claim 
or exercise of any power whatever on the part of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 137 

the General Government to protect domestic manu- 
factures, the protection of manufactures not being 
among the grants of power to the government speci- 
fied in the Constitution of the United States; and 
also against the operation of the Act of Congress, 
passed May 2 2d, 1824, entitled 'An Act to amend 
the several acts imposing duties or imports,' gener- 
ally called the Tariff law, which vary the distribu- 
tions of the proceeds of the labor of the community 
in such a manner as to transfer property from one 
portion of the United States to another, and to take 
private property from the owner for the benefit of 
another person not rendering public service — as un- 
constitutional, unwise, unjust, unequal and oppres- 
sive." 

Of the men of his generation in Virginia there 
was none who possessed a more brilliant contem- 
porary reputation for skill in debate, for eloquence 
and logic, and for ability as a party leader, than the 
author of these resolutions. It has been said of Mr. 
Giles that he was "considered by John Randolph 
to be in the House of Representatives what Charles 
James Fox was admitted to be in the British House 
of Commons — the most accomplished debater that 
his country had ever seen." No one came within 
the radius of his influence without being impressed 
by him. His earliest appearance to Gordon is 
described in a letter written by the latter in 1822: — 
"I have seen Mr. Giles, and was astonished at his 
power of conversation, and the rich and varied fund 
of political knowledge which he seemed to have on 
every public subject." At the time of these resolu- 
tions Giles had already been a member of the United 
States House of Representatives, and had won a 
national distinction, and the undying hatred of the 
Federalists, by his attack upon Alexander Hamil- 
ton, then Secretary of the Treasury, in which he 
charged him with corruption and peculation. He 



138 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

had co-operated with Madison in the Virginia Gen- 
eral Assembly in procuring the passage of the fa- 
mous resolutions of 1798; and had later been a Sen- 
ator from Virginia from 1804 to 18 15 in the United 
States Senate, where he held during a large part of 
that period the recognized and undisputed position 
of leader of the Republican party. Yet, like many 
others of his Virginia compatriots who had not dis- 
dained, after serving their State in high position, 
to continue in her service wherever called, he had 
returned in 1826 to the House of Delegates of her 
General Assembly, from which he emerged, during 
its session, by the votes of his colleagues, as Gover- 
nor of the Commonwealth, an office esteemed by him 
the loftiest in her gift. 

He was a State-Rights Jeffersonian of the strictest 
sect; and though the difference in their years was 
more than a quarter of a century, and Giles at this 
time belonged to the coterie of political patriarchs 
who still continued on the scene of events, the simi- 
larity of their political views made a strong friend- 
ship between himself and Gordon, which survived 
until Giles' death. 

Giles walked with a crutch, which seemed to lend 
grace and dignity to his movements; and a writer 
of the period, describing him in the Convention of 
1829-30, said: "His style of delivery was perfectly 
conversational — no gesture, no effort; but in ease, 
fluency and tact surely he had not there his equal; 
his words were like honey pouring from an eastern 
rock." He died in 1830 at an advanced age. 

His ability as a forceful and vigorous polemical 
writer was scarcely less than that which he possessed 
as a debater. He published a speech on the embargo 
laws in 1808; political letters to the people of Vir- 
ginia in 1 8 13; a series of letters signed "A Consti- 
tuent" in the Richmond Enquirer of January, 18 18, 
against the plan for a general education; in April, 
1824, a letter of invective against President Mon- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 139 

roe and Henry Clay, for their "hobbles," the South 
American cause, the Greek cause, Internal Improve- 
ments and the Tariff; and he also addressed a letter 
to Judge Marshall, disclaiming the expressions, but 
not the general sentiments, in regard to Washington, 
which are ascribed to him in the Chief Justice's 
"Life" of the first President. 



CHAPTER IX 

IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY LAFAYETTE's VISIT 

Jefferson's lottery 

In 1824 the Congress of the United States adopted 
by unanimous vote a resolution requesting President 
James Monroe to invite the Marquis Lafayette, 
whose presence in the dark days of the Revolution 
had inspired and aided the struggling colonists, and 
the memory of whose achievements was still cher- 
ished by the young republic, .to revisit the country 
whose independence he had done so much to secure. 
The invitation was accordingly extended; and La- 
fayette, then an old man, accepted it, and sailed 
from Havre, July 12, 1824, in an American mer- 
chant vessel, arriving in New York after a voyage of 
a month and two days. His reception in America 
was one continuous series of festivities, in all of 
which he was, of course, the central figure; and he 
was met everywhere with such evidences of admira- 
tion and affection as are seldom bestowed 
upon those who have long retired from the 
field of their activities. He remained in the 
United States for fourteen months, traveling 
over a large part of the country, and visit- 
ing each of the twenty-four States that then com- 
posed the Union. Congress voted him a money 
grant of $200,000 for his services in the War of the 
Revolution, and a land-grant of 24,000 acres out 
of the public lands. 

Nowhere was his reception more in the nature 
of a continuous ovation than in Virginia, the scene 
of some of his most brilliant military triumphs and 
the home of his devoted personal and political friend, 
Thomas Jefferson. In November, 1824, he visited 
Jefferson at Monticello. A contemporary record. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 141 

written by an eye-witness of much that occurred upon 
the occasion of this visit, thus describes it: 

"General Lafayette reached Albemarle from 
Richmond early in the month of November, 1824. 
He passed through Goochland and Fluvanna on his 
way, and was received in each county with the live- 
liest demonstrations of respect and gratitude. He 
was escorted to the Albemarle line by the Fluvanna 
troop. At Boyd's Tavern, on the line, he was re- 
ceived by the Committee of Arrangements from Al- 
bemarle, and a large deputation of citizens from that 
county. Mr. William C. Rives, acting as their 
spokesman, addressed General Lafayette in a felici- 
tous speech of some length, to which the General 
replied in a very feeling manner. 

"After partaking of refreshments at Boyd's 
Tavern, the party set out for Monticello. The 
landau of Mr. Jefferson was allotted to General La- 
fayette by the Committee of Arrangements. The 
General ascended the landau, attended by Mr. Rives 
and Thomas Jefferson Randolph, the chairman of 
the Committee of Arrangements. Then followed 
'The Guards,' and next a large body of citizens 
marshalled into order by Major Clark. In this man- 
ner they proceeded to Monticello. At two o'clock 
in the afternoon the approach of the procession upon 
the mountain was announced by the bugle, and when 
the echo of its note was heard, those persons who 
had assembled at an early hour to witness the Gen- 
eral's arrival, formed themselves into a line on the 
northern margin of the circular yard, in front of 
the house. The cavalry by a sudden and almost in- 
stantaneous movement ranged themselves on the op- 
posite side of the yard. A deep silence prevailed, 
while every eye turned with eagerness to the point 
where the General's presence was expected. The next 
moment the carriage drew up in front of the build- 
ing. 



142 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"As soon as the General drove up, Mr. Jefferson 
advanced to meet him with feeble steps; but as he 
approached his feelings seemed to triumph over the 
infirmities of age, and as the General descended, they 
hastened into each other's arms. They embraced 
again and again; tears were shed by both, and the 
broken expressions of 'God bless you. General,' and 
'Bless you, my dear Jefferson,' was all that inter- 
rupted the silence of the scene, except the audible sobs 
of many whose emotions could not be suppressed. 

"On the next day the Deputation Committee and 
the Guards proceeded to Monticello to escort the 
General to Charlottesville. General Lafayette, Mr. 
Jefferson and Mr. Madison in the landau proceeded 
to Charlottesville, where hundreds were drawn up 
in order, awaiting their arrival. At the steps of the 
Central Hotel the General alighted, and was re- 
ceived in a handsome manner by the chairman of 
the Committee, Mr. Randolph, who addressed him 
as follows : 

" 'General: In the name and on behalf of the 
citizens of Albemarle, I tender to you our most af- 
fectionate greeting and cordial welcome. Our 
fathers, whom you see around us, have taught us, 
their children, from our earliest youth a grateful 
respect and an affectionate veneration for you. They 
have often told us how, in the distressful hour of 
their affliction and despair, you came to them and 
cheered them by your presence and your counsels. 
They have often recounted to us how in the toilsome 
march, in the inclement night, in the stubborn action, 
you were at their sides, sharing their fatigues and 
sufferings and mingling your blood with theirs. 
These things have sunk deep in our hearts. We look 
around us, and see that we are free, that we are 
happy. We recollect that it is partly by your aid 
that we are so. 

" 'We have hailed you in your native land as the 
friend to the Rights of Man; we have seen you the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 143 

victim of your patriotism and of your disinterested 
principles; we have seen with pleasure your tri- 
umphant march through our country — a triumph 
such as has never been decreed to man — not to an 
imperial Caesar, or to an Eastern Tamierlane. The 
homage of ten millions of freemen to virtue and to 
merit, the unbought applause of a proud and free 
people, who have scorned alike the despotism of a 
mob or of a monarch — who have never bent the 
knee in abject adulation to sceptered power or here- 
ditary honors — who have never bowed but in adora- 
tion of their God — are yours. This, General, is the 
people, who in the exalting swell of their hearts, now 
greet you as their guest and benefactor.' 

"To which the General replied: 'Amidst the 
patriotic and affectionate enjoyments of this visit to 
my beloved and venerated friend, I find a high ad- 
ditional gratification in the welcome I receive from 
the citizens of Albemarle. The recollections you are 
pleased to allude to are on your part very kind, sir — 
I may add, they are very generous. I still with re- 
gret remember that owing to the necessity of our 
operating a junction which an active enemy en- 
deavored to prevent, the town of Charlottesville 
was exposed to momentary Invasion. Yet that very 
circumstance has given fresh proof of the patriotism 
of the citizens of this and the neighboring counties, 
as to their spirited assistance we were In a great part 
Indebted for the happy return of our military opera- 
tions. Now, sir, I rejoice to see you In the full en- 
joyment of peace and happiness, and of the rising 
prospects which are before you. Receive, gentle- 
men, with my congratulations, my respectful and 
affectionate acknowledgments.' 

"The General was then Introduced to a large 
crowd In the reception-room. He was evidently 
grateful at the glow of feeling. It was not con- 
strained respect to renown or power; it was love. 
It was deep and grateful affection. It was the mem- 



144 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

ory of his services and sacrifices for us that swelled 
the hearts and glistened in the eyes of the people. 

•'The procession was formed at twelve o'clock, 
and marched to the University, the chief marshal 
with two aids and the President of the day preced- 
ing the General, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison in 
a landau drawn by four grays. After the landau 
followed the General's son and suite in a carriage 
drawn by two horses; then the Visitors of the Uni- 
versity, standing committees, magistrates, cavalry, 
junior officers, and citizens on horseback and on foot. 
The procession moved slowly to the University. 
Each man from the accuracy of his movements 
seemed to have been drilled for his duty. As the 
University came suddenly into view, a thousand of 
the daughters of the mountains, ranged aloft on the 
terraces, waved their white kerchiefs in the air. It 
was beautiful; his escort, the country's chivalry; 
his reception, its loveliness. They crowded around 
the eastern stretch of the University, and came to 
the bottom of the lawn. The procession dismounted, 
and was formed on foot. The first objects that 
struck the view were three flags floating on the Ro- 
tunda. On the largest in broad letters were the words : 
'Welcome, our country's Guest.' There was a moral 
sublimity in the scene. On the very spot where now 
vvalked, arm in arm, a hero of the Revolution with 
two of its sages — a spot where the youngest scion 
of science had been planted by the patriarchal hand 
of Jefferson, his last public care — were now assem- 
bled all the beauty and chivalry of the country to 
bid the fathers of their country hail. 

"The procession moved slowly up the Lawn to 
the steps of the Rotunda, the General gracefully 
bowing to the ladies as he passed, where Mr. Wil- 
liam F. Gordon stood ready to receive him. As the 
General advanced Mr. Gordon descended the steps 
of the portico, and thus addressed him : 

"'General Lafayette: The citizens of Albe- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 145 

marie County again greet you as their friend and 
benefactor. They tender you assurances of their 
gratitude and veneration. They contemplate with 
affection the moral sublimity of the scene of your 
return to our country. Throughout our associated 
republics to you there is no enemy. We refute the 
calumny that men have more respect for their de- 
stroyers than for their benefactors, while with spon- 
taneous gratitude millions of freemen resound to 
heaven the praises of liberty and Lafayette. 

" 'The citizens of Virginia hail with a peculiar 
enthusiasm your arrival at this spot. It is their uni- 
versity, their future temple of literature and science, 
erected beyond the point where the flag of the in- 
vader has ever floated, a fruit of our glorious Revo- 
lution, an emanation from that mind which first de- 
clared that we were free, sovereign and independent. 

" 'We associate with your being here, General, the 
augury of its success. We look back on the troubled 
night of our Revolutionary W^ar, and thence to this 
institution of liberty with grateful recollections of 
your gallant toils in that, and with bright anticipa- 
tions of your benedictions on this. 

" 'Here the sons of Virginia, whilst drinking from 
the untroubled fountain of science, will contemplate 
with indescribable emotion the beauty and stability 
of that Corinthian pillar of reputation which you 
have erected. It charms the more from the solitary 
grandeur which it exhibits, and the waste and de- 
struction of the social and political elements with 
which it has elsewhere been surrounded. For the 
future generations of our country we know. General, 
that you will unite with us in the fervent invocation 
that this University, erected on the hills of liberty 
which you have defended from the tread of the in- 
vader, may be an everlasting fire to which her vo- 
taries may look; that here may continue to blaze that 
bright constellation of principles which guided our 



146 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

steps through an age of revolution and reformation, 
to which the wisdom of our sages and the blood of 
our heroes, mingled with that of our illustrious 
guest, have been devoted. 

" 'For yourself, General, we sincerely pray that a 
life which has been so gloriously directed to the ser- 
vice and happiness of mankind, whose morning beam 
lighted the darkness of our fortunes, may be long 
protracted; that its evening ray may shine across 
the gloom and oppression of other nations, and illu- 
mine their way to liberty and safety.' 

"To which the General replied: 

" 'I am happy, sir, once more to receive the kind 
welcome of the citizens of Albemarle, and this day 
to receive it under the beautiful pantheon of this ris- 
ing University, the advantage of which not only to 
this part of the United States but to the cause of 
mankind, so eloquently expressed by you, I rejoice 
to acknowledge. Nor do I in anything more cor- 
dially sympathize than in the mention you have made 
of the venerable friend, whom, if there were but one 
University in the world, the enlightened men of both 
hemispheres would in common elect to preside over 
universal information. 

" 'Be pleased, sir, to accept the tribute of my 
respectful gratitude to you; and to you, fellow- 
citizens of Albemarle.' 

"The dinner that took place in the upper room of 
the Rotunda was attended by many hundreds of 
persons, including several of the most illustrious 
citizens of the Republic. Mr. Valentine W. Southall 
presided, with the General first on his right, the Mr. 
Jefferson and Mr. Madison; and on his left G. W. 
Lafayette and suite." 

Toasts were given, and responded to by Lafayette, 
Madison and Jefferson, the last named of whom, 
too weak to reply in person, handed to the presiding 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 147 

officer, Mr. Southall, some written remarks which 
he read to the company. 

In the following January General Lafayette re- 
turned to Richmond, where It was designed to ex- 
tend him a reception commensurate with the dignity 
of the occasion of his visit to the capital of the Com- 
monwealth. The plans were carried out In all their 
detail, and were characterized by a lavlshness of 
municipal display and a sincerity of affection that 
were unexcelled, and perhaps seldom equalled, by 
any welcome extended him elsewhere. The streets 
and the public and private buildings were decorated 
In his honor; and his way was adorned with tri- 
umphal arches, as to a Roman conqueror. 

On the 23d of January, 1825, the House of Dele- 
gates, then In annual session appointed a committee 
to act jointly with one of a like character from the 
Senate, for the purpose of taking appropriate legis- 
lative action In connection with Lafayette's visit; 
and Gordon was made a member of this joint com- 
mittee. On the 24th of January the committee, hav- 
ing waited on General Lafayette at his tavern, at ele- 
ven o'clock, and delivered to him a formal address of 
welcome on behalf of the legislature, to which he 
appropriately replied, returned and reported to the 
the General Assembly that it would be agreeable 
to their distinguished visitor to be Introduced to the 
two Houses at any hour that might be convenient 
to them to receive him. There can be no more 
graphic narrative of the deep feeling of gratitude 
and reverence, and of the unfeigned desire to mani- 
fest these emotions, than is Illustrated in the simple 
and poignant record of the proceedings of this com- 
mittee, as detailed on the pages of the House Jour- 
nal. The committee after reciting a preamble, say: 

"The Committee recommend therefore the fol- 
lowing resolution : 

"Resolved, That General Lafayette will be re- 



148 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

ceived by the House of Delegates on this day at two 
o'clock." 

The Journal thereupon continues: "The said reso- 
lution being twice read was, on the question put 
thereon, agreed to by the House, 

"On the motion of Mr. Gordon, the following 
preamble and resolution being twice read, were 
agreed to unanmiously. 

" 'The General Assembly of Virginia entertaining 
an exalted sense of the generous devotion of General 
Lafayette to the freedom and happiness of mankind, 
and conscious that their love of liberty must ever 
be identified with their affection towards so distin- 
guished a benefactor, as a testimonial of their grati- 
tude for his gallant services and ennobling sacrifices 
in the cause of American liberty. Have, therefore. 
Resolved: That the Executive of this State cause 
to be prepared and presented to General Lafayette, 
in the name of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and 
in the manner which they may deem most appro- 
priate, copies of the Declaration of Independence, of 
the Declaration or Bill of Rights, and the Act for 
establishing Religious Freedom, together with the 
Farewell Address of General Washington to the 
People of the United States.' " 

In the presence of the two Houses Lafayette was 
addressed by the Speaker of the House of Delegates 
in words of welcome; and it is recorded that the 
distinguished visitor "made an eloquent reply." The 
House Journal concludes with the recitation : "The 
General took the seat prepared for him in the 
House." 

Other tokens of welcoine and affection followed, 
amid scenes of festivity and rejoicing in Richmond; 
and when the venerable Frenchman returned to his 
native land It was with a vivid and grateful sense 
of the generosity and hospitality with which he had 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 149 

been everywhere received in the new Republic which 
a half century before he had helped to create. 

Mr. Jefferson's Lottery Bill was an interesting 
feature of the legislative session following General 
Lafayette's visit. The often shifting and conven- 
tional significance of the moral code in the view of 
civilized mankind is illustrated in the different regard 
with which the best and wisest men then viewed 
many things now tabooed and prohibited. Jefferson 
in his old age had become impoverished, and sought 
the relief of the General Assembly of the State in 
disposing of what remained of a considerable for- 
tune to the best advantage. He had been the pos- 
sessor of two hundred thousand dollars worth of 
property when he left the Presidency, but the cease- 
less hospitality which characterized his home-keeping 
at Monticello, the payment of an ante-bellum British 
debt, and the loss of twenty thousand dollars by en- 
dorsement for one of his friends, ruined him finan- 
cially. He sold his library to Congress for $23,950, 
but this only served to defer for a while the final 
reckoning. The time was unfavorable for convert- 
ing his large landed estates into money by sale; and 
even if this were done, an ordinary sale would have 
left him without property and a debtor. 

He petitioned the legislature for leave to dispose 
of his property by lottery. By this means, he said, 
"I can save the house of Monticello, and a farm 
adjoining, to end my days in, and bury my bones. 
If not, I must sell house and all here, and carry my 
family to Bedford, where I have not even a log 
hut to put my head into." 

The author of the "Life of Jefferson" in the 
"American Statesmen" series, says: 

"When the proposition was broached, some oppo- 
sition was threatened, and its success was not cer- 
tain. Jefferson wrote, with evident humiliation : 'I 
-perceive there are greater doubts than I appre- 



150 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

hended, whether the legislature will indulge my re- 
quest to them. It is a part of my mortification to 
perceive that I had so far over-valued myself as to 
have counted on it with too much confidence. 'I see,' 
he sadly adds, ' in the failure of this hope a deadly 
blast of all my peace of mind during my remaining 
days.' "But," continues Mr. Morse, his biographer, 
"he was spared a disappointment so severe. The 
opposition was feeble, and the authorizing bill passed 
both houses by very gratifying majorities." 

As a matter of fact the opposition was aggressive, 
strong and relentless, and was based solely upon polit- 
ical considerations. The Federalists fought the 
measure with the same vindictive spirit that they 
manifested towards everything Jeffersonian, and as 
though it involved some great principle of govern- 
ment. Gordon, who was actively interested in its 
success, wrote to Mr. Jefferson on the 17th of 
February, 1826, from Richmond, as follows: 

"Friday, 17 February, 1826. 
"Dear Sir: 

"I have the pleasure to inform you that the Bill 
in your behalf was today ordered to be engrossed 
by a large majority. 

"It is calculated by your friends that it will pass 
to-morrow by a decided majority. 

"The objects of the application were not at first 
understood by many members voting against leave 
to bring in the bill; and I fear the Federalists were 
active in preventing them. 

"I believe that few will now vote against the bill 
except the Federal delegates, of whom there are too 
many. Their opposition is more than compensated 
by the zeal and devotion of your friends, among 
whom I am proud to subscribe myself as your affec- 
tionate and devoted servant, 

William F. Gordon." 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 151 

On the following day the bill passed the House of 
Delegates under the title of "An Act authorizing 
Thomas Jefferson to dispose of his property by lot- 
tery," by a vote of one hundred and twenty-five to 
sixty-two. Immediately after its passage, proffers 
of assistance came from all parts of the United 
States; and a little more than four months later Mr. 
Jefferson was dead, departing under the illusion that 
his home and hearthstone would be saved to his 
children by the citizens of a grateful country. 

In the next December Gordon presented in the 
House of Delegates the petition of Colonel Thomas 
Jefferson Randolph, Jefferson's grandson and exe- 
cutor, on behalf of several slaves who had been 
liberated by the latter's will, that they might be per- 
mitted to remain in the State of Virginia, the law of 
the Commonwealth at that time providing that 
manumitted slaves should be removed beyond the 
borders of the State; and in January thereafter the 
House Journal recites that "on motion of Mr. Gor- 
don, the committee of Schools and Colleges were 
discharged from consideration of the petition of 
sundry citizens of Albemarle relative to the Bust 
of Thomas Jefferson, and the said petition was or- 
dered to be referred to the select committee ap- 
pointed to enquire into the propriety of erecting a 
monument to Thomas Jefferson, that they examine 
the matter thereof, and report their opinion there- 
upon to the House. Ordered that Mr. Gordon be 
added to the said committee." 

These were his last tributes in the House of Dele- 
gates to the memory of the greatest of all Virginia 
statesmen, whose principles of government he 
cherished, with whose personal friendship and esteem 
he was honored, and with whom he co-operated 
modestly and unobtrusively, but none the less really 
and effectively, in establishing a great educational in- 
stitution, the name of which, as the offspring of his 
genius, Jefferson provided should be inscribed upon 
his tombstone. 



CHAPTER X 

IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF TVVENTY- 

NINE-THIRTY THE DISTINCTION OF 

ITS MEMBERSHIP 

In December, 1828, the movement In behalf of a 
Constitutional Convention In Virginia for the pur- 
pose of changing the basis of representation began 
to assume definite shape. Gordon was the chairman 
of the House Committee on Courts of Justice, and 
took a leading part In the discussions In the House of 
Delegates over the various amendments to the Con- 
stitution that were proposed for a partition of the 
State In order to assure a proper distribution of the 
delegates and senators upon a fair representative 
basis. But early in the session It was developed that 
the question had become so exciting a one as to be 
Insusceptible of settlement by amendment; and in 
the latter part of January, 1829, we find him sup- 
porting and voting for a bill "to organize a conven- 
tion." The proposition was submitted to the free- 
hold electorate of the State; and the convention was 
called by a vote of 21,896 In its favor to 16,637 
against It In the whole Commonwealth. In Albe- 
marle the measure was hardly popular; and In a 
poll of 329 votes the convention was defeated by 
three majority. 

"Andrew Jackson was Inaugurated In the month 
of March," says Tyler, In his "Letters and Times 
of the Tylers," "and the next month elections oc- 
curred in Virginia for a State Convention to amend 
the constitution of 1776. This was, therefore, a 
most momentous year In the annals of Virginia. The 
subject of a constitution had been mooted In Vir- 
ginia ever since the Revolution, but the conservatism 
of the State had steadily defeated the project for a 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 153 

continuous period of forty-six years. The jealousies 
of the west, and the discontent expressed by the dis- 
franchised non-freeholders, forced the Legislature 
in 1828 at length to submit the call of a convention to 
the people. The fact was that the changed state of 
society required a change in the fundamental laws. 
The eastern counties, whose white population con- 
sisted principally of freeholders, voted heavily 
against the proposition, pregnant as it was with in- 
jury to their present political influence, by threaten- 
ing to increase the voting power of the West, and 
to abrogate the equality of the counties — each county 
under the old constitution, being entitled to two rep- 
resentatives irrespective of population." 

It was a situation not unlike that which arose in 
England over the Reform Bill; and it is interesting 
to note that in the attitude of the western and moun- 
tainous part of the State, where there were few 
slaves, and whose inhabitants were generally men 
who toiled with their own hands, was visible for the 
first time the line of political and social demarca- 
tion, which resulted three decades later, amid the 
throes of war, in the dismemberment from the 
mother State of the present State of West Virginia. 
To the thoughtful observer of the period was visi- 
ble in the smouldering fire of the approaching con- 
flict a spark of local peril; for the lurid light of the 
slavery agitation was kindling the horizon, and the 
vision at home, though of a different character, was 
none the less ominous than that abroad. The wrong 
of slavery to the non-slave owning white man of the 
South, so powerfully appealed to in the dramatic 
presentation of Hinton R. Helper's "Impending 
Crisis" in the fifties, first showed itself in the consti- 
tutional convention movement in Virginia in 1828. 

The convention contained ninety-six delegates, 
distributed among twenty-four districts, as indicated 
in the legislative act of its establishment. Each con- 
vention district chose four delegates. When the 



154 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

elections were had, and the convention assembled, 
it appeared that the people had chosen as their rep- 
resentatives for the reconstruction of the basic law 
a body of men who were the peers of those who 
more than fifty years before had made the first con- 
stitution ever written on American soil, or of that 
later gathering of Virginians who had ratified the 
Federal Constitution. 

"Some have held it equal to the celebrated con- 
vention which met in Virginia in the year 1788 to 
pass upon the Federal Constitution," wrote Mr. 
Ritchie in his preface to the Debates. "Much of 
what was venerable for years and long service; many 
of those who were most respected for their wisdom 
and their eloquence; two of the ex-Presidents of the 
United States; the Chief Justice of the United States; 
several of those who had been most distinguished in 
Congress or the State legislature, on the bench or at 
the bar, were brought together for the momentous 
purpose of laying anew the fundamental law of the 
land." 

Ritchie's eulogium, pronounced in the summer 
following the convention's adjournment, has been 
more than justified by the judgment of posterity; 
and the veracious historian must hesitate to prefer 
to this organization of illustrious men even that first 
Continental Congress, of whose personnel Lord 
Chatham said "that for solidarity of reasoning, force 
of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion under such a 
complication of difficult circumstances, no nation or 
body of men can stand in preference to the general 
Congress at Philadelphia." 

The age was peculiarly one of oratory, in which 
the Virginians excelled; and in this amazing body 
were very many who in the exercise of this particular 
gift might rank with that galaxy of the House of 
Commons which, beyond the water, gathered in 1788 
in the great hall of William Rufus, at Westminster, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 155 

to impeach the Governor of India at the bar of the 
British Peers. 

The very opening scene of the convention was in 
the highest degree impressive. James Madison, the 
only survivor of that earlier convention which had 
formed the first constitution of the State, and one of 
the two living members of the convention which had 
formed the Constitution of the United States, now 
an ex-President of the Union, arose and addressed 
the Convention. He stated the propriety of organ- 
izing the body by the appointment of a President, 
and nominated his old antagonist, James Monroe, as 
qualified to fill the chair. Mr. Monroe, another 
ex-President of the United States, was unanimously 
elected; and was escorted to the chair by Mr. Madi- 
son and Chief Justice Marshall. 

About them were gathered John Tyler, Governor, 
Senator and President; Littleton Waller Tazewell, 
one of the greatest of the Virginians of his genera- 
tion, who was Governor of the Commonwealth and 
United States Senator; Abel P. Upshur, jurist and 
powerful debater, and the successor of Daniel Web- 
ster as Secretary of State; John Randolph, of Roa- 
noke, illustrating in his extraordinary appearance 
and marvellous oratory the gall of genius. United 
States Congressman, Senator and Minister to Russia; 
William Branch Giles, whom Randolph likened to 
Charles James Fox, in the British Commons, "the 
most accomplished debater his country had ever 
seen," leader of the Republican party on the floor of 
the United States Senate, bitterly hated of the Feder- 
alists, and now the Governor of the Commonwealth; 
Philip Pendleton Barbour, Speaker of the United 
States House of Representatives, later president of 
the convention, statesman and jurist, and Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; 
Benjamin Watkins Leigh, orator of the highest rank, 
whose English diction was said to be "so clear, cor- 
rect and elegant, that it might be safely committed 



156 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

to print just as spoken," Doctor of Laws of William 
and Mary College, Reporter of the State Court of 
Appeals, and United States Senator; James Pleas- 
ants, Congressman, United States Senator, and Gov- 
ernor of the Commonwealth; Chapman Johnson, 
eminent lawyer and leader of the bar, the successor 
of Jefferson and Madison as Rector of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia; John W. Green, distinguished 
jurist and Justice of the Supreme Court of Appeals 
of Virginia; John Y. Mason, chairman of th,e 
Foreign Affairs Committee in the United States 
House of Representatives, United States District 
and Circuit Judge, Secretary of the Navy under 
Tyler, and Attorney-General of the United States 
under Polk, President of the Virginia Constitutional 
Convention of 1850, and United States Minister to 
France; Mark Alexander, for many years a notable 
party leader in Southside Virginia, and a representa- 
tive in Congress from John Randolph's old district; 
William Leigh, Randolph's friend and executor, 
whom he esteemed in the category of those that he 
trusted along with Nathaniel Macon and John Wick- 
ham ; William O. Goode, legislator and statesman. 
Speaker of the House of Delegates, Congressman, 
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, 
democratic exponent of the doctrine of gradual 
emancipation; Charles Fenton Mercer, soldier and 
statesman, president of the Chesapeake & Ohio 
Canal, Federalist Congressman during an unex- 
ampled period of service among his contemporaries, 
the earnest advocative of a protective tariff, and an 
opponent of slavery; John S. Barbour, able debater, 
eloquent defender of freehold suffrage in the conven- 
tion, four times elected Congressman, and a distin- 
guished member of the family of which James Bar- 
bour and Philip Pendleton Barbour were then the 
most illustrious representatives; Alexander Camp- 
bell, scholar and theologian, and one of the most in- 
tellectual and forceful leaders of men in his day; 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 157 

George Loyall, zealous anti-tariff man and party 
leader, and prominent in Congress during Jackson's 
administration; and others, who if less widely 
known then or subsequently in the field of national 
politics and statesmanship, stood for all that was 
loftiest and best in the contemporary life of the Com- 
monwealth, and included on their bede-roU such well- 
remembered names as those of Briscoe G. Baldwin, 
Richard N. Venable, David Watson, Robert Stanard, 
William Henry Fitzhugh, John Roane, Richard 
Morris, Lewis Summers, John Scott, George C. 
Drom.goole, Joseph Prentis, Archibald Stuart, 
Thomas R. Joynes and Thomas M, Bayley. With 
scarcely an exception those of this remarkable aggre- 
gation of ninety-six Virginians who had not 
already, or did not later achieve a civic reputation, 
were distinguished and highly esteemed both in their 
own communities, and in the State at large for their 
virtue and wisdom as citizens and forceful men of 
affairs. 

The convention constituted a galaxy of statesman- 
ship, of oratorical and forensic ability and display, 
of judicial learning and of experienced political train- 
ing, that is worthy of the pen of the most gifted his- 
torian; — the detailed circumstance of which in this 
narrative would be, even otherwise, rendered super- 
fluous by the noble story of the convention by one of 
its youngest, though not least talented members, the 
scholarly and accomplished Hugh Blair Grigsby, his- 
torian of the two earlier conventions of Virginia, and 
Chancellor of the ancient and venerable college of 
William and Mary. 

The delegates from the district composed of the 
counties of Albemarle, Amherst, Nelson, Fluvanna 
and Goochland were William Fitzhugh Gordon of 
Albemarle, James Pleasants of Goochland, Lucas P. 
Thompson of Amherst, and Thomas Massie, Jr., of 
Nelson. 

Governor Pleasants was a man of eminent ability 



158 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

and of large political experience and distinction. 
Flis career has been sketched in a former chapter. 

Lucas P. Thompson, one of the younger men of 
the convention, achieved later a position second to 
that of none of the many great nisi-prius judges of 
his generation in the State, by his administration 
through a long series of years of the duties of a judge 
of the Circuit Court; and though the fame of even 
the most prominent and the ablest judges of the 
lower courts is apt to fade from the memories of the 
succeeding generations. Judge Thompson's person- 
ality was so distinctively marked that the story of 
his wisdom and justice still lingers even among the 
laymen of the circuit over which he so long and ably 
presided. 

Thomas Massie, Jr., the fourth member from the 
Albemarle district, had the local reputation for 
ability and high character which adorned all the 
members of the convention whose civic achievements 
were less conspicuous than those of its leaders; and 
was a member of a family that has long been influ- 
ential and prominent in the Piedmont section of the 
State. 

The convention met in the hall of the House of 
Delegates in Richmond, in the northern end of the 
beautiful and symmetrical State Capitol, which, like 
so much else of value and charm in Virginia, was the 
product of Jefferson's genius. The building was the 
reproduction of the classic Cathedral at Nismes in 
France, which had caught his eye and delighted his 
cultivated taste during his residence abroad; and of 
which, with a persistent view to the application of 
Old World ideals to the conditions of his developing 
young republic, he had brought home with him the 
architectural scheme and plan. 

The first session of the Convention of 1829-30 
occurred on the 5th day of October, 1829. Its 
meeting-place had been the scene of t|ie most of 
Gordon's public labors, and of no few of his forensic 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 159 

triumphs; and with that sense of accustomedness 
which makes men put forth their best efforts amid 
familiar scenes, he felt himself ready, upon occasion, 
to do battle, even with the intellectual giants about 
him, upon the great question which the body had 
been convened to determine. But nearly a month of 
its session elapsed before he entered the debate, in 
an impressive argument in behalf of the white basis. 
The representatives from the western part of the 
State, where, as has been related, the slave population 
was sparse, and the aristocratic influence descending 
from a colonial line of river-barons did not prevail, 
maintained the proposition that all representation 
should be based on the white population. The con- 
tention of the members from the eastern and older 
section of the State was that representation in the two 
houses of the General Assembly should be fixed with 
reference to the property of the people of Virginia in 
slaves. Randolph of Roanoke, who had bitterly 
opposed the calling of the convention, saw in its 
assembling and in the proposition of the white basis 
an approaching evolution of social chaos. There 
was no man of the earlier generation, save Mr. 
Jefferson, for whose patriotic and intelligent con- 
ception of the organization, under the Federal Con- 
stitution, of our dual form of government, Gordon 
had a higher admiration than for Randolph's; and 
when he entered the convention as an advocate of the 
white basis, it was not without grave apprehension 
that he might, sooner or later, become the target of 
Randolph's attack. He was accustomed, however, 
to say in later life, with much pleasure, that Ran- 
dolph's attitude toward him was one, not only of 
unvarying courtesy and kindness, but even of prof- 
fered friendship ; and that the poisoned tongue which 
lashed Alexander Campbell and Chapman Johnson, 
and others in the excited sessions, had always gener- 
ously spared him. 



i6o WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Niles, in his Register, under date of October 24, 
1829, said: 

"There are 95,593 persons charged with State tax 
on movable property in the State of Virginia, all of 
whom have been taxed, without being represented 
because of such taxation. The inequality of the 
present mode of electing delegates to the General 
Assembly may be well esteemed from the table 
showing the taxables in each county. Many of the 
counties, and especially those in the Valley, or west- 
.ward, contain 500 to 2,000 taxables while many in 
the eastern part of the State, having the same power 
of representation, have less than 400 taxables; — one, 
Warwick, only 126. We have mentioned that the 
business of the convention was parcelled out to dif- 
ferent com.mittees. That on the legislative department 
decided on the i6th inst. that white population was 
the proper basis for representation in the House of 
Delegates. The vote in the committee stood thus : 
For the resolution, Wm. Anderson, Chapman John- 
son, Andrew Bierne, James Madison, Charles Fenton 
Mercer, John R. Cooke, Philip C. Pendleton, John 
B. George, Henley Chapman, Lewis Summers, 
Philip Doddridge, Wm. Campbell of Bedford, and 
James Pleasants, 13. ^''Against it, Benjamin Wat- 
kins Leigh, Wm. H. Broadnax, John Tyler, John 
Y. Mason, John Randolph, John Roane, John W. 
Green, Littleton Waller Tazewell, George Townes, 
John Taliaferro, Thos. R. Joynes, 11. 

"The vote in committee, however, was 12 against 
12, on the proposition to make the white population 
the basis also of representation in the Senate, Mr. 
Madison voting with the minority on the other 
question. It is intimated that the proposition to 
elect the Senate according to federal numbers (by 
which 5 slaves are counted as 3 white persons) will 
be offered by way of compromise between the parties 
in the convention, which already begin to show a 
great deal of feeling, — the west not yet disposed to 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON i6i 

concede as to the Senate, and the east resisting the 
proposition even as to the House of Delegates. 

"It is stated that 48 of the members may be 
counted as firm friends of representation according 
to white population." 

"A. P. Upshur," says Tyler, "was the Ajax 
Telamon of the principle favored by the eastern 
people, that property should be made one of the 
factors in the constitution of the two houses. His 
speech is certainly one of the most singular specimens 
of ingenuity and reason ever put together. A mere 
majority rule, he said, was based on no a-priori prin- 
ciple, but the expediency of society was the single crit- 
erion. A system of checks and balances had been 
found necessary in all civilized communities, and 
v/hile the equality of county representation could not 
be maintained, due regard should be had to the slave 
interest of the east." 

The feeling indicated by Niles, in his Register, 
between the representatives of the two sections, was 
strong from the beginning; but the fires of discord 
did not blaze out until some time after the convention 
had met. Gordon was an optimist, ever buoyant and 
hopeful; and dreamed that the question of the basis 
might be settled amicably. On the 26th of October 
he said in a letter to his wife : "Our convention 
matters have hitherto progressed with as much tem- 
perateness and good humor as the nature of our dis- 
cussions would admit; and I hope we shall have no 
disagreeable excitement." But the excitement came. 
Randolph of Roanoke discussed "ghosts" with Chap- 
man Johnson; and spoke of the seat filled by another 
advocate of the white basis who on the day before 
had been sworn in as the successor of a member who 
had died, as "a seat now vacant." The situation 
grew tenser, as the debate on the basis continued. 
The populace and the newspapers vied with each 
other in assuming partisan attitudes. Niles, in his 



1 62 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Register of October 31, advocating the white basis 
with the sneering and characteristic contempt of an 
incipient abolitionist, said that if it should be adopted 
"the old families, as they were called, — persons much 
partaking of the character of the old nobility of 
France, imbecile and incorrigible, will pass away; — 
and a healthful and happy, bold and intelligent 
middle class rise up, to sweeten and invigorate 
society, by rendering labor honorable; and 'Rich- 
mond' will not any longer be all Virginia, as a dis- 
tinguished gentleman used to proclaim that it was in 
matters of politics or policy. The moral effects of 
these things over the slave population of Virginia, 
and in the adjacent States, are hardly to be calculated. 
The presence of numerous slaves is incompatible with 
that of a numerous free population; and it is shown 
that the labor of the latter in all the important opera- 
tions of agriculture or the arts, except the cultivation 
of cotton, sugar, tobacco and rice (as at present car- 
ried on) is the cheapest and the best. And in truth, 
it would not be straining the facts too far to express 
an opinion, that the greatest question before the Vir- 
ginia Convention is the perpetual duration of negro 
slavery, or the increase of a generous and free white 
population." 

Like Banquo's ghost, the slavery spectre was be- 
ginning to haunt the premises of the minds of men, 
and would not down. Its appearance in the debates 
of the convention, by the very terms of the situation, 
was inevitable; but the members put away from 
themselves, with general accord, the vision of "the 
greatest question," suggested by the outsider, Niles. 

Gordon, himself a large slave-holder, and an aris- 
tocrat by descent as by family ties and social associa- 
tions, was nevertheless profoundly antagonistic to 
that view of republican government which consid- 
ered property as one of its corner-stones. He pre- 
sented with great force and steady persistence the 
white basis as the true and philosophic solution of the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 163 

vexed question, until he discovered that the differ- 
ences of the two parties had become embittered and 
their antagonisms relentless; and that unless they 
were reconciled the convention would be disrupted in 
a cataclysm of final disagreement. He thereupon set 
himself to work, with an industry and an absence of 
personal prejudice which were essential to the ac- 
complishment of his purpose, to the task of devising 
a practical compromise scheme which should so 
evenly adjust and balance the representative power 
of the two factions as to induce its ultimate accept- 
ance by both. 

The task was a most difficult one. The situation, 
in all Its grave significance, had already attracted the 
attention of the whole country; and the partisans of 
the two factions came from other States to listen to 
the great debates, and to applaud the one side or the 
other, where the convention was almost exactly 
divided, and a vote or two might mean victory or 
defeat. 

"If it be settled on the basis of white population 
only," wrote a South Carolinian correspondent, from 
Richmond, to one of the Charleston papers, under 
date of November 21, "Virginia will proclaim to the 
Union tnat slavery ought to be expelled as one of the 
elements of the basis of representation; that accord- 
ing to the principles of her constitution It ought to be 
expelled as an element in the basis of representation 
In the Federal Government. Are not the Southern 
States Interested in this proclamation? Does it not 
deeply affect them? 

"The great matters In agitation here," continued 
this writer, "make me forget the talent and elo- 
quence displayed on the arena. They are extraordi- 
nary. From all parts of this State, and from many 
of the other States, people are daily flocking here In 
vast multitudes. Men and women crowd the hall 
and gallery of the convention, as at some vast show 
or theatre. All feel a deep Interest In the matters of 



1 64 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

debate; and the discussions are not only in the con- 
vention, but in the boarding-houses, taverns, shops, 
public streets and market-places. 

"Northern doctrines are working here more than 
is seen or acknowledged. Vehement and eloquent 
harangues are daily delivered in the convention. 
Temper has heretofore maintained her uncertain em- 
pire, but many symptoms portend stormy debates. 
What will be the issue no one can tell. I fear the 
worst, and hardly permit myself to hope for the best. 
I cannot tire you with portraits of splendid and great 
individuals. I merely drop you a hint of some views 
of a general nature as they have struck me, and as 
they affect our beloved South Carolina." 

The two factions were so equally matched in num- 
bers, that for a long time it seemed difficult, if not 
impossible, to get a majority for any scheme of set- 
tlement. Neither was disposed to yield to the other 
on any point; and the good temper which Gordon 
had chronicled in the earlier days of the convention 
was beginning to disappear as the question of "the 
basis" continued to be discussed. Five propositions 
for a compromise between those supporting the white 
basis, and those who maintained the representation 
of the slave-interests, were brought forward. They 
were formulated and offered respectively by Mr. 
John R. Cooke of Frederick County, Mr. Abel P. 
Upshur of Northampton County, Chief Justice Mar- 
shall, Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, and William 
Fitzhugh Gordon. Each of these plans of compro- 
mise was organized on the theory of the provision in 
the United States Constitution with reference to 
slave-representation, namely a three-fifths representa- 
tion for the slave population; but this theory of the 
application of the Federal numbers occurred only in 
respect to the House of Delegates. The representa- 
tion in the State Senate was left in each instance to 
be determined on the basis of the white population. 
The distribution of representatives in House and 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 165 

Senate among the several sections of the State was 
the crucial point about which discussion raged and 
difficulty presented itself. The white population of 
one section feared the influence and power of the 
slave-owners of the other section ; who, on their side, 
demanded for property that consideration and place 
in government which it has always finally succeeded 
in obtaining for itself. The student of skilled dialec- 
tics and forensic debate can find nowhere a more 
brilliant illustration of the power of the human mind 
to conceive, and the capacity of language to present 
the reasoning of intellect with intellect than in the 
great debates over these several schemes upon the 
floor of the convention. 

The respective authors of the compromise plans 
were all men of unusual individuality, and large 
public experience. John Rogers Cooke, of a family 
that on its literary side has since been very promi- 
nent, was born in Bermuda in 1788. He had prac- 
tised law with distinction and success for many years, 
and had been counsel in a number of important cases 
in the higher courts of the Commonwealth. He had 
served as a soldier and officer in the military com- 
mand that marched from the lower Shenandoah Val- 
ley in 1807, when the Chesapeake was fired on; and 
he had legislative experience as a delegate in the Gen- 
eral Assemibly of Virginia. He brought to the dis- 
charge of his duties in the convention a vigorous and 
penetrating intellect, a wide and critical knowledge of 
men, and a deportment of lofty and generous 
courtesy that exalted his dignity and delighted his 
acquaintances. A lasting popular reputation, how- 
ever, is seldom the heritage left by the ablest lawyer 
or legislator, unless accompanied by other achieve- 
ment; and that of John Rogers Cooke, as worthy as 
it was to survive, has been largely forgotten by the 
public in comparison with the fame which was won 
for his son, Philip Pendleton Cooke, by his poems, or 
for his other son, John Esten Cooke, by his stories 



1 66 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

and romances of Virginia; and "Florence Vane" and 
"Surry of Eagle's Nest" will be remembered long 
after all others than the student and the historian 
shall have ceased to read the great debates in the 
Virginia Convention of 1829-30. 

Of Abel P. Upshur it may be truthfully affirmed 
that Tyler's characterization of him as the Ajax 
Tclamon of his side of the debate was well deserved. 
He was endowed with a powerful mind, a large 
measure of restless energy, a gift of speech which 
was conspicuous even in that assembly, and a legal 
training and experience that had brought him a judge- 
ship of the General Court three years prior to the as- 
sembling of the Convention — a position to which he 
returned with the convention's close. He was an 
ardent advocate of the slave-basis, and belonged to 
the extreme pro-slavery and State-Rights school of 
politics. The reputation which he made in the con- 
vention was but the precursor of that which came to 
him later, when in 1843, upon the resignation of 
Mr. Webster as Secretary of State, Upshur was 
called by President Tyler to fill that office. He 
perished in the vigor of intellectual power and 
splendid manhood by the accident on the ill-fated 
Princeton. 

Howe, in his "Virginia Historical Collections," 
says: "Judge Marshall, whenever he spoke, which 
was seldom and for only a short time, attracted great 
attention. His appearance was Revolutionary and 
patriarchal. Tall, in a long surtout of blue, with a 
face of genius and an eye of fire, his mind possessed 
the rare faculty of condensation; he distilled his 
argument down to its essence." 

Marshall sympathized and acted with the up- 
holders of the property or slave-basis; but always in 
the judicial spirit. It was in recognition and depreca- 
tion of the inharmonious drift of debate, and to allay 
the ever-rising tide of passion, that he offered his 
compromise measure. He was at this time seventy- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 167 

five years old; and his participation in the sessions 
of the convention constituted his last public political 
service. 

One of the five compromises offered was that by 
Benjamin Watkins Leigh. Leigh was a lawyer of 
great ability and a statesman of the first rank. 
While a member of the General Assembly of Vir- 
ginia he had offered in that body a series of resolu- 
tions asserting the right of the legislature to instruct 
the Senators of Virginia in the United States Senate. 
He was one of the commissioners who had prepared 
the Revised Code of the State; and he had been its 
Supreme Court reporter. He became, after his ser- 
vice in the convention, the successor of Mr. Rives in 
the Senate; and resigned after two years, because he 
could not in conscience obey the instructions given 
him by the Virginia legislature, whose right to in- 
struct he recognized. Governor Henry A. Wise says 
of Mr. Leigh, in his "Seven Decades of the Union," 
in describing his speech on Benton's expunging reso- 
lution in the United States Senate : 

"As a constitutional and civil lawyer, as a his- 
torian, as a logician, as a patriot jealous of power 
and sensitive to any encroachment upon limitations 
guarding the rights of legislation and the freedom of 
resolutions and laws, as well as of debate, and as a 
scholar and rhetorician no man compared with Mr. 
Leigh in the argument on the topic of the expunction. 
He was a purist in his Anglo-Saxon, and his speech 
was in its style equal to that of the Elizabethan age 
of English literature, not surpassed by the 'well of 
English' of Dean Swift." 

Gordon has left a vivid pen-picture of him in a 
letter from Richmond written in 1823: 

"I heard Mr. Benjamin W. Leigh before the 
senate yesterday on the subject of his mission to Ken- 



1 68 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

tucky. He is one of the most impressive and sensible 
public speakers I have heard, although he has not 
fulfilled my expectation as an eloquent one. His 
voice is very clear and distinct, but Incapable of a 
swelling note, If I may so say. His manner is natural 
and ardent; his enunciation perfectly distinct, with- 
out the Intonation of a pathetic speaker; and yet he 
seems to feel sensibly himself everything he utters. 
His person is a very fine one for a man below the ordi- 
nary size. Indeed the symmetry of his form indi- 
cates the agility and strength of his Intellectual facul- 
ties, whilst his face Is a fine subject for Lavater's 
most favorable speculations. The head Is large and 
well shaped, the forehead high and full, though not 
prominent, running almost to the top of his head; 
his hair raven black, and curls in loose ringlets. The 
eye, not indeed like that of Shakespeare's poet, 'in a 
fine frenzy rolling,' but black, rather small, keen, 
penetrating, emitting a sprightly and intellectual ray, 
as It glances with rapidity at everything about him. 
The nose, cheeks, mouth and chin all unite to form 
a fine and handsome face. His manner In public in- 
dicates the confidence and composure of conscious 
ability, without either arrogance or vanity." 

With the five plans of settlement on a compromise 
basis before It, the debates In the convention con- 
tinued to rage with unabated vigor, and undimin- 
ished feeling. 

"This convention question," wrote Gordon to his 
wife on December i8, 1829, "has taken such a turn 
from the commencement of our deliberations, — so 
much bad temper has been exhibited, — that I have 
felt unhappy since Its beginning. My mind has been 
absorbed. It seemed at one time that the safety of 
the State was jeoparded by the bad temper of a few 
individuals. I think now we shall make a constitu- 
tion. The proposition which I offered long since, 
and which I then knew was the only one that could 
combine a majority of the convention, passed yester- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 169 

day evening by a small majority, but I think will ulti- 
mately get the vote of the whole convention. After 
we shall be worried with several other propositions, 
I think now ten days will close our labors." 

On Saturday, December 19, 1829, th.^ record of 
the Debates states: "The final question was now, 
at length, put on agreeing to Mr. Gordon's compro- 
mise, and decided in the affirmative by ayes and noes 
as follows"; and the names of those voting are 
given, showing a majority of fourteen. 

"The question as to the basis of representation," 
says Niles's Register of the week following, "seems 
finally settled by the passage of the following reso- 
lutions, being Mr. Gordon's substitute for Mr. 
Upshur's amendment: 'Resolved, that the represen- 
tation in the Senate and House of Delegates of Vir- 
ginia, shall be apportioned as follows : There shall 
be 13 senators west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, 
and 19 east of those mountains. There shall be in 
the House of Delegates, 127 members, of whom 29 
shall be elected from the district west of the Alle- 
gheny Mountains, 24 from the Valley between the 
Allegheny and Blue Ridge, 40 from the Blue Ridge 
to the head of tidewater, and 34 thence below.' 

"Previous to the passage of Mr. Gordon's resolu- 
tions," continues Niles, "Mr. Doddridge's amend- 
ment, offering to fix the white basis for the House 
of Delegates, and the federal numbers for the Senate, 
was lost by a tie, 48 to 48, Mr. Madison voting aye, 
and Mr. Marshall no. Several of those who had 
been calculated on as generally supporting the white 
basis, assigned their reasons for supporting Mr. 
Gordon's resolutions. Among these were Mr. Hen- 
derson from Loudoun and Mr. Cooke from 
Frederick." 

A later paragraph vindicates the anticipation ex- 
pressed by Gordon in his letter above. "Mr. 
Upshur's resolutions," says the Register, "were set 
aside to make room for Mr. Gordon's by the unani- 
mous vote of the Convention, except Mr. Madison." 



CHAPTER XI 

IN THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION OF TWENTY- 
NINE-THIRTY ADVOCACY OF THE WHITE 

BASIS RANDOLPH OF ROANOKE. 

Gordon's attitude towards the question of the 
basis was illustrative of the temperament of the real 
statesman. Although his county of Albemarle had 
voted against the convention by a majority of three, 
he had been pronounced in the canvass for election in 
his advocacy of the white basis. He had supported 
his views in the body itself with persistence and 
courage in debate; and it was only when he per- 
ceived the growing danger of its disruption as the 
differences of opinion grew wider, that he gave his 
energies and abilities to discovering a solution of the 
vexed question that should be at once equitable and 
acceptable. 

His first speech in the debate, which had been par- 
ticipated in at length by Mr. Cooke, Mr. Green, 
Judge Upshur, Mr. B. W. Leigh, Mr. Scott, of 
Fauquier, Mr. Brooke, Mr. Doddridge, Mr. Philip 
Pendleton Barbour, and others, was made after the 
convention had been In session nearly a month. It 
was a stalwart presentation of the claims of those 
who advocated the white basis, and of opposition to 
the view of those who supported the cause of a gov- 
ernment founded upon wealth. 

"An attempt is now made," he said, "in the modi- 
fication of this constitution to infuse into it a new 
principle, unheard of till now, (so far, at least, as 
my knowledge extends), in any free government; a 
principle which Is at war with every notion we, as 
Americans, have been taught to hold sacred, and 
which goes to make the elective power quadrate with 
wealth. The design is, in effect, either to make 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 171 

slaves constituents to the legislature, or to make the 
tax paid on them an ingredient In legislative power. 
To both these propositions I have strong objections. 
Sir, the plan will be utterly unavailing to the object 
its advocates seek to accomplish by It. If the conse- 
quences, which are to flow from granting us an 
equality of rights, are really such as they apprehend, 
this scheme will never operate to prevent the evil 

* * * Property, sir, in any just scheme of 
representation, is not to be regarded but as claiming 
the protection of the society. It is in aristocracy that 
the argument is urged which insists on giving it a 
political power as possessed by Individuals. When 
you admit that, you make a House of Lords; you 
give the rich man a power which he could not claim 
in the government without the influence of his wealth. 
But gentlemen propose to give this Influence to prop- 
erty, not as property In the hands of individuals,' but 
as lying in certain sections and subdivisions of the 
State. And does this better the matter? Not In 
principle, for the principle remains the same; not in 
practice, for there Its only effect can be, and is, to 
produce heart-burnings and jealousies of section 
against section, which Is even worse than of man 
against man. Because one portion of the State has 
fewer slaves than the residue, will you make your 
basis of representation rest upon that sort of prop- 
erty, of all others the most objectionable? What 
must be the effect of such a policy? It must. It will 
produce discontent everywhere, save only among the 
slave-holders themselves. 

"Sir, I thought it unwise, and I feel that It Is most 
unpleasant, to bring this subject into the discussion. 
I tried to prevent It last winter in the legislature; but 
It Is forced upon us, and we must meet it; the gentle- 
men will not let us avoid It. 

"I ask what good would it do to Virginia, were we 
to admit representation on the basis of the whole 
slave population?" 



172 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

In this speech, which, as reported in full, presents 
an array of facts, figures and deductive arguments, 
covering eight of the closely printed and fine-typed 
pages of Ritchie's edition of the "Debates," he ranks 
with the strongest of those who espoused the cause 
of the white basis in the discussion. It was small 
wonder, therefore that some of those, whose parti- 
sanship exceeded their patriotism, fiercely resented 
his abandonment of the white basis, when he per- 
ceived the impossibility of its success; or that this 
resentment should have burned brightest in the 
breeze of his successful achievement of the compro- 
mise. Upon a motion made by Mr. Cooke, to pro- 
vide for a reapportionment of representation every 
ten years after the adoption of Gordon's scheme of 
"the mixed basis," one of these stalwarts flamed into 
anger at the latter's support of the motion. He rose, 
he said, "to congratulate the gentlemen from Albe- 
marle on his happy disposition, which enabled him 
with such perfect ease to change his sentiments to 
suit every new posture of affairs. When that gentle- 
man had first appeared in the convention, nothing 
would suit him but a basis of free white population; 
the gentleman would not so much as listen to any- 
thing but the white basis. Now he was most anx- 
iously engaged in guarding the slave-holding portion 
of the State. The gentleman's one and only object 
seemed to be to guard his own proposition; and he 
turned for or against any measure proposed, just as it 
threatened to affect that proposition. He had risen," 
he continued, "expressly with a view to congratulate 
the gentleman, which he did most heartily, on this 
happy disposition." 

The member making this thrust was not one of 
the more prominent men of the body, as may be 
imagined from the character of the taunt itself. But 
coming from any source, such a gibe was naturally 
irritating to a man of Gordon's sensitiveness and 
lofty ideals of honor and of character. He was a 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 173 

large slave-owner, himself; and most of those, with 
whom he came in closest personal and social contact, 
were slave-owners, and believers In slavery as an insti- 
tution upon which society, by circumstance, had come 
In Virginia to be cornered and established. Yet he 
had not hesitated to espouse the cause of the white 
basis as affording, In his belief, the truest foundation 
for legislative representation In the Commonwealth. 
Thoroughly imbued with this sentiment, he had 
nevertheless, without hesitation, pitched it overboard 
in the passionate storm of protracted and violent de- 
bate, as unavailable; and conceived that in so doing 
he was performing his highest duty to society and to 
the State. His reply to the assault upon him was as 
dignified and good-tempered, as it was conclusive. 
He said "that he utterly denied and repudiated the 
unfounded Imputation of the gentleman from Taze- 
well. He had changed none of the opinions that he 
had brought with him to that convention in relation 
to the proper and just basis of representation. He 
had contended from the first, and he had never re- 
tracted the position, that white population was the 
true basis. He still held that sentiment. He wished 
it had been In his power to congratulate the gentle- 
man from Tazewell on his disposition for concilia- 
tion and compromise. For his own part, he did not 
profess or desire an incapacity to receive light from 
argument, especially argument so able as was much 
that had been heard In that assembly. He never had 
considered vv^isdom to consist in a dogged obstinacy, 
that persevered against every consideration of policy 
and all the force of reason. The gentleman's charge 
gave him little concern ; his 'withers were unwring' ; 
nor should he have felt the gibe at all, save in the 
unkind spirit which it betrayed." 

"The wise and conciliatory terms for compromis- 
ing the formidable disputes which had grown out of 
the basis question," says one of Chief Justice Mar- 
shall's biographers. In commenting upon the work of 



174 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the convention, "led to a better temper in the con- 
vention, and powerfully conduced to the acceptance 
of the form of settlement which was finally adopted, 
and incorporated into the new constitution." 

Other questions than that of the basis of repre- 
sentation engaged the final days of the assemblage, 
among them being those of the extension of the right 
of suffrage, the eligibility of government officials by 
popular vote, the reform of the judiciary system of 
the State and the anti-duelling statute; and the re- 
ports of the debates show that Gordon took an inter- 
ested and more or less prominent part in the dis- 
cussion of all these important matters. 

The debate, and final attitude of the body upon 
the question of duelling is interesting, as tending to 
show that in spite of the support which "the code" 
then received at the hands of society, some of the 
wisest and most conservative minds among the Vir- 
ginians of the period were opposed to it. The de- 
bate arose upon the motion to legitimize the already 
existing act of the General Assembly, passed in 1810, 
which provided for the disfranchisement and dis- 
qualification to hold office, of any citizen of the Com- 
monwealth participating in a duel, by conferring the 
express power upon the legislature to enact such a 
law under constitutional ordinance. The proposition 
excited the wrath of John Randolph of Roanoke, ap- 
parently to as great an extent as had that of the white 
basis. 

"Mr. Randolph," wrote a newspaper corre- 
spondent in the earlier days of the convention, "is 
here as well as elsewhere, an object of great curiosity. 
His health is better than it has been or some time 
past; and amongst his friends he indulges, as hereto- 
fore, in a great deal of pleasantry and sarcasm. He 
declares his determination to take no part in the pro- 
ceedings of the convention, and takes his seat every 
day at the back of the president's chair, entirely out 
of the range of the speakers; unable, however, to 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 175 

contain himself entirely, he is every now and then 
heard in a shrill undertone, either prompting and 
encouraging his friends, or criticizing his opponents. 
He is annoyed by the numberless visitors of both 
sexes that crowd the lobby, the gallery and the vacant 
seats of the hall; and no little merriment was excited 
the other day, when his voice was heard amid the 
crowd at the door, exclaiming: 'Mr. Sergeant, I'll 
thank you to put me into the convention !' He is 
very violent on the subject now before the house, and 
avows that if the white basis prevails, the State must 
be severed, and the Southside have a government of 
its own. And what he says, sometimes in jest and 
sometimes in irritation, others, I am sorry to say, too 
often utter in a much less venial spirit." 

A curious instance of this "prompting and en- 
couraging his friends" by Mr. Randolph appears in 
the report of the debates on the basis. During a 
speech of Mr. Morris, of Hanover, against the white 
basis, he said: "Suppose, to quiet our discontents. 
Great Britain had offered to allow us to be repre- 
sented, to how many delegates should we have been 
entitled ? Let me see : There were the two Adamses 
and Hancock and Franklin and Lee and Henry and 
the Rutledges. Why, sir, upon the principle con- 
tended for by gentlemen, we could not have been 
authorized to have more than twenty or twenty-five 
of them; thirty perhaps." At this point the official 
reporter interposes in parentheses the unexpected and 
startling comment: "Here a shrill and very peculiar 
voice was heard to say: 'Less than the county of 
W^ilts!'" It was John Randolph from his seat 
behind the president's chair. He did not, however, 
long confine himself to this attitude towards the con- 
vention, but was soon actively participating in the 
debates. In the discussion of the anti-duelling reso- 
lution, Mr. Randolph said that he verily believed the 
anti-duelling act to be in utter subversion of every 
fundamental principle of free government; and fol- 



176 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

lowed up his proposition with an ingenious argument 
that a recognition of the right of the legislature to 
disfranchise for one description of offense, carried 
with it the implication of a similar power to interpose 
in the same manner on any other behalf; and he ap- 
plied the practical use of the power to the anti- 
slavery agitation then arising, that had lent no small 
fuel to the smouldering fire of feeling in the debate 
on the basis. 

"Mr. President," he said, "it has been my misfor- 
tune to have lived in an age of fanaticism and cant. 
And I would go to the uttermost ends of the earth 
to find a refuge, if there be one, from this spirit of 
fanaticism and the spirit of cant. Sir, why not at 
once embody the entire decalogue? Aye, and the 
whole Bible — old and new Testaments — and a sys- 
tem of philosophy into the bargain, — and gulp down 
the whole at one oath? The power is the same. 
The principle is the same. Sir, do you not believe, 
— nay, do you not know, — that there are persons in 
this assembly who believe in their consciences that 
to hold a human being in bondage is a crime of the 
blackest dye, not a whit inferior to murder itself? 
This spirit of fanaticism is spreading, and it is one 
of the strongest feelings that exists among men when 
once it gets the upper hand. Suppose it should 
choose to prescribe an oath that a man never had 
held and never would hold a human being in bond- 
age, and this on pain of disqualification from all 
offices under the Commonwealth? Is not that an 
offence as much in the teeth of the Bill of Rights, 
and of the great and sweeping principles it lays down 
as to all men being by nature equally free? Then, 
conceive to yourself a Wilberforce, or a Master 
Stephen, setting forth before the House of Bur- 
gesses the horrors of this oppressive, this unjust, this 
nefarious, this bloody, this cruel, this anti-Christian 
practice of holding men and women in bondage. Sir, 
no matter to what point it blows, this tornado of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 177 

fanaticism sweeps all before it. Mr. President, was 
there ever a constitution on earth that gave the 
legislature power to punish particular offenses in a 
particular manner? Is it not an anomaly? Was 
such a thing ever heard of in any nation, civilized 
or uncivilized? In Christendom or Heathenesse? 
Leave this whole matter where it is. Sir, I am not 
so much surprised at seeing some men taking this 
course. But when I see men for whose character I 
feel the most profound respect, lending themselves 
to a particular purpose, at the expense of the great 
fundamental principles of free government, what am 
I to think? Sir, the convention have no right to 
put any such clause into the constitution. As was 
very truly observed, they have the power to do it; 
but they have not the right nor the shadow of right. 
The traitor, who has plotted the reintroduction of the 
Tarquins into the Capitol, — he is not pronounced 
unpardonable; you do not offer to him an oath that 
he has never plotted to overturn your government; 
he is not to be put to the torture by an oath ; but your 
oath is in the very spirit of the Spanish Inquisition, — 
it puts the man of virtue only to the torture, and 
passes over the ruffian and assassin. It offers a prem- 
ium for cowardice — a premium for falsehood — a 
premium for servility — a premium for slander — a 
premium for all that is base and abject in human 
character. 

"Sir, I have no hesitation in saying with the gen- 
tlemen from Chesterfield (Mr. Benjamin Watkins 
Leigh), that place a man's honor in one scale, and 
all the offices in the gift of King or Kaiser in the 
other, and a man of honor would spurn them all in 
comparison with his violated feelings and his vio- 
lated reputation. Never was there such a test at- 
tempted under the sun — never, at least, in any gov- 
ernment that arrogated to itself the character of a 
free republic. This is the entering wedge. Admit 



178 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the principle, and you may go on allowing one party 
to proscribe the other, until at length both the great 
parties in your State will find themselves out of the 
pale of the constitution. Sir, I have nothing more 
to say. If the people are disposed to submit to ty- 
rannical laws imposed on them by their own legis- 
lature, let them do it." 

Randolph had been the Republican leader in Con- 
gress, and chairman of the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, three decades before. He had been elected 
to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy; and 
he was famous as an orator throughout the Eng- 
lish-speaking world. At the time of the convention, 
whose calling he had opposed, he was infirm of body, 
and frail in health. But the fires of his genius 
burned unabated; and his speeches in the debates 
glowed and scintillated with the sarcasm and satire 
and invective which charmed his friends and paraly- 
zed his enemies. Mr. Grigsby, in his "Discourse on 
Littleton Waller Tazewell," speaks of Randolph 
as "that wonderful man whose train was always 
tracked by fire;" and tells with keen zest of how 
Tazewell, who greatly admired Randolph's style of 
speaking, which was in such strong contrast to his 
own, would "listen to his speeches with the relish 
of a schoolboy, rubbing his hands and laughing 
heartily as the orator went along." 

Randolph's hostility to the convention and its 
work did not cease even with its adjournment. He 
went back to his district, and made a speech giving 
an account of his stewardship, advising the people to 
vote against the constitution as amended. He said 
that it was a trick of the convention to submit its 
ratification or rejection to the vote of the people. 

"Who called the convention?" he asked. "The 
freeholders ! Who had the right to say whether 
the work was done according to their wishes but 
those who ordered it? No one! The non-free- 
holders, according to all the rules of legitimate in- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 179 

duction, had no more right to vote on that question 
than the people of Hayti." 

In the progress of the debate on the anti-duelhng 
oath Gordon observed that "during the time he had 
been in the legislature, he had never heard the ques- 
tion started as to the constitutionality of the statute, 
but only as to that part of it which applied to mem- 
bers of the assembly, and which went to add an- 
other qualification to membership beyond those 
which the Constitution laid down." 

Philip Doddridge, one of the acutest and ablest 
intellects in the body, took issue with the statement. 
He said that "he had heard some of the ablest ar- 
guments he ever had heard in the Assembly in sup- 
port of the idea which the gentleman from Albe- 
marle said he had never heard broached there. He 
had been present on two different occasions when an 
application had been made for pardon, and he had 
resisted both applications with a firm determina- 
tion, if possible, to cause the statute to re-act on 
public opinion. He had voted with a heavy heart. 
He had heard the argument the gentleman from 
Albemarle said he had never heard, and that from 
able lips in the case referred to by the gentleman 
from Chesterfield. He should consider it a bless- 
ing to have all doubts of a constitutional kind re- 
moved from the act, and to see the law and public 
opinion moving harmoniously together." 

Gordon reiterated his statement that he had never 
heard the opinion advanced in the legislature that 
the anti-duelling act was unconstitutional in its ap- 
plication to officers of the Commonwealth other than 
members of the General Assembly; and was sus- 
tained in his proposition by Mr. Morris of Han- 
over and by Mr. Benjamin Watkins Leigh, who 
had been his colleagues in the House of Delegates. 
Mr. Stuart of Patrick, the mover of the resolu- 
tion in regard to the anti-duelling act, expressed his 
opinion that duelling was a pernicious and barbar- 



i8o WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

ous practice, and ought to be suppressed. Mr. Wil- 
son of Monongalia characterized it as an odious 
practice that ought to be put down. Mr. McCoy 
thought that the law of the land would never remedy 
the evil unless public opinion went with the law. 
Mr. Campbell of Brooke, denounced it as one of 
the most barbarous crimes of the age; and so the 
debate raged, with contrariety and diversity of opin- 
ion. But Randolph's characteristic speech failed of 
its purpose; and the resolution was adopted by a 
vote of 71 to 22, Gordon voting with the majority. 

The statute, thus constitutionally legitimized, con- 
tinues to exist to the present day; but the fact that 
it was not then founded upon public opinion pre- 
vailed to cause legislature after legislature to make 
it a practical nullity through relieving of the dis- 
abilities imposed by it successive duellists, until pub- 
lic opinion itself changed, and the law became 
finally as effective as unnecessary, because of the 
sentiment against "the code." Its history affords 
a striking illustration of the truth of Randolph's 
assertion that morality is not brought about by legis- 
lation, and that men cannot be made good by 
statutes. 

The question of the judiciary engaged the ablest 
talents of the body in its discussion; and It was dur- 
ing this debate that Marshall declared: "I have al- 
ways thought, from my earliest youth until now, 
that the greatest scourge an angry heaven ever in- 
flicted upon an ungrateful and sinning people was 
an Ignorant, a corrupt, or a dependent judiciary." 
Mr. Grigsby, in his "Discourse on Tazewell," speaks 
of the pre-eminence of Mr. Tazewell in that debate, 
even in comparison with the ablest lawyers of the 
body. "But the occasion," he says, "which impressed 
me most deeply with a sense of his abilities, was a 
discussion on the tenure of the judicial office, In which 
Chief Justice Marshall, Philip P. Barbour, Stanard, 
Scott, Giles, and others, took part. Each speaker 
was conscious of the powers of his opponent; pos- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON i8i 

terlty, in the pre^>ence of the skilful reporter, as well 
as the existing generation represented by some of 
the ablest men, were the spectators of the combat; 
and a visible air of solemnity pervaded the manner 
of each. The question was precisely that which 
sprung from the repeal of the judiciary act of 1800 
by the Congress of 1802, and is the nicest of all our 
party questions. It was a magnificent display of 
parlimentary tact and intellectual vigor; and I do not 
think that an hour of my life ever glided so insen- 
sibly away as while I listened to that debate. Blows 
fell fast and heavy. I saw Judge Barbour, who 
though president of the convention, as the house was 
in committee, engaged in the debate, fairly reel in 
his seat from one of Judge Marshairs massy blows, 
which he returned presently with right good will; but 
Tazewell, if I may use a figure which presented the 
pith of the argument of one side, and which was 
frequently used by both, — Tazewell fairly 'sunk the 
boat' under the Chief Justice. The views of Taze- 
well prevailed; and in such a contest, where all 
were kingly, and in which the combatants were magis 
pares quam similes — rather equals than alike — if the 
victor's wreath could with propriety be awarded to 
a single individual, I do not think I err in saying 
that it would have been assigned by a majority of 
the hearers to Tazewell. As an illustration of the 
effect of his manner and argument on the minds of 
able men who were opposed to him in State politics, 
which then raged fiercely, a gentleman from the 
West, who held for several years a seat in the House 
of Delegates and in the Council, speaking of the 
debate to me on the day it occurred, said: 'Why, 
Tazewell trod down those great men as if they had 
been children.' " 

The convention adjourned on the 15th day of Jan- 
uary, 1830; and the constitution, which was sub- 
mitted for adoption or rejection to a vote of the 
people, was ratified and adopted by a conclusive ma- 
jority. 



CHAPTER XII 

ELECTED TO CONGRESS PERSONNEL OF THE VIR- 
GINIA MEMBERS THE WHIG PARTY 

THE JEFFERSON BIRTHDAY DINNER 

Prior to his election to the Constitutional Con- 
vention of Virginia, which assembled In Richmond in 
the autumn of 1829, Gordon, while still a member 
of the House of Delegates, had been elected to the 
2 1 St Congress of the United States from the dis- 
trict composed of the counties of Albemarle, Am- 
herst, Nelson, Fluvanna and Goochland. 

Among his colleagues from Virginia were the 
Speaker, Andrew Stevenson, William S. Archer, 
John S. Barbour, Philip Pendleton Barbour, and 
Philip Doddridge, The Senators from Virginia were 
worthy of their great predecessors and of the best 
of those who came after them. They were John 
Tyler and Littleton Waller Tazewell. Andrew 
Jackson had just been elected President of the United 
States by a vote of 178 to 83 in the electoral col- 
lege; and Calhoun, his later relentless political 
enemy, was Vice-President, and presiding over the 
deliberations of the Senate. 

"Andrew Stevenson of Virginia," writes Benton 
in his "Thirty Years' View," "was re-elected speaker 
of the House, receiving 152 votes out of 191; and 
he classing politically with General Jackson, this 
large vote In his favor, and the small one against 
him (and that scattered and thrown away on sev- 
eral different names not candidates), announced a 
pervading sentiment among the people In harmony 
with the Presidential election, and showing that poli- 
tical principles, and not military glare, had produced 
the General's election." 

Stevenson was one of the Piedmontese. He was 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 183 

born in Culpeper County, and, though at this time 
a resident of Richmond, and a representative from 
the metropolitan district of the State, he came later 
to claim Albemarle as his home, by virtue of his 
ownership of the fine estate of "Blenheim" in that 
county, whither he retired at the close of his poli- 
tical career, and where he died in 1857. He was dis- 
tinguished as a lawyer, and had served several terms 
in the Virginia House of Delegates, of which body 
he had been Speaker. From 1823 to 1834 he was 
a member of Congress, resigning in the last-named 
year, after having presided as Speaker over the de- 
liberations of the House of Representatives from 
1824 to the year of his resignation. In 1836 he was 
appointed Minister to Great Britain, which post he 
filled until 1841. Upon his return to Virginia he 
became Rector of the University of Virginia, and 
is said to have "devoted the rest of his life to the 
duties of that office, and to agricultural pursuits." 

Of Gordon's other colleagues from Virginia dur- 
ing his first session in Congress, the most prominent, 
if not the ablest, was Philip Pendleton Barbour, of 
the neighboring county of Orange, the represen- 
tative of Madison's old district, who had been the 
leader of the w^ar party in the Virginia legislature 
of 18 12, and Speaker of the United States House 
of Representatives in 1821. Barbour had resigned 
from the House in 1825 to become a judge of the 
General Court of Virginia; and was again returned 
to Congress in 1827, resigning again in 1830 on 
account of ill-health. Two years later, Gordon, who 
admired him for his fine ability, his lofty character 
and his qualities of statesmanship, attended the great 
gathering of the Democracy at Baltimore, in its first 
National Convention, held on the 21st of May, 
which adopted the celebrated two-thirds rule, drawn 
by Mr. Saunders of North Carolina: 

"Resolved: That each State be entitled, in the 



1 84 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

nomination to be made of a candidate for the Vice- 
Presidency, to a number of votes equal to the num- 
ber that they will be entitled to in the electoral col- 
lege, under the new apportionment in voting for 
President and Vice-President, and that two-thirds of 
the whole number of votes in the convention shall 
be necessary to constitute a choice." 

Jackson had already been renominated for the 
Presidency by his friends in the New York legisla- 
ture; and nothing remained for the Baltimore Con- 
vention to do except to ratify his nomination and 
name a candidate for Vice-President. Gordon was 
eager for the nomination of Judge Barbour — an ob- 
ject which he attempted, but in which he failed. 
"When I arrived in Washington," he wrote to Mrs. 
Gordon, under date of 27th May following, "I found 
everything in motion preparatory to the Balti- 
more Convention, whither I went at the request of 
many of my constituents and exerted myself to pro- 
cure a nomination of Judge Barbour, in which I think 
I might have succeeded had his friends from Vir- 
ginia composed the delegation from Virginia." Van- 
Burcn received 203 of the 283 votes represented, 
and Judge Barbour 49. Later President Jackson 
appointed Barbour Judge of the United States Cir- 
cuit Court; and in 1836 he became an Associate 
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
in which high office he continued until his death in 
1841. 

Judge Barbour's cousin, John S. Barbour, of Cul- 
peper, another colleague of Gordon's, has been dealt 
with in an earlier chapter. 

William S. Archer was another of Gordon's as- 
sociates from Virginia in the 21st Congress. He oc- 
cupied a leading place in the politics of the period. 
His father had been a soldier of the Revolution on 
the staff of "Mad Anthony" Wayne, and had dis- 
tinguished himself at the capture of Stony Point. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 185 

The son was a member of the General Assembly for 
a period continuing, with the exception of one year, 
from 1812 to 1819; and a member of Congress 
from 1820 to 1835. I" this latter service Mr. Ar- 
cher was especially prominent in connection with the 
debates over the Missouri Com.promise Bill; and in 
1 841 he became a member of the United States 
Senate from Virginia, and was chairman of its Com- 
mittee on Foreign Relations, 

Yet another Virginian representative of talents in 
this Congress was Philip Doddridge, whose post- 
humous fame has not been com^mensurate with his 
ability, and whose advocacy of the white-basis in the 
Constitutional Convention of 1829-30 illustrated an 
intellectual force, a gift of debate, and a brilliancy 
of statesmanship that were not inferior to those of 
the best minds in that assemblage of illustrious 
men. Doddridge was said to be scarcely less 
celebrated, in his day, in the western part of the 
State for his eloquence and splendid talents than was 
Patrick Henry in his generation in the eastern por- 
tions of the Commonwealth. He was a native of 
Wellsburg, in Brooke County and died at Wash- 
ington in 1832, while a member of Congress, in the 
morning of his growing influence and fame. 

The biography of John Tyler, then one of the 
Senators from Virginia, and later President of the 
United States, has been written in a monumental 
work by his youngest son. Dr. Lyon Gardiner Tyler, 
the present distinguished president of the ancient 
and venerable College of William and Mary. He 
had represented Charles City County in the House 
of Delegates from 1811 to 181 6, when he was 
elected, and again twice re-elected, to the United 
States House of Representatives. Once more, in 
1826, he was a member of the House of Delegates 
in the General Assembly of Virginia, and in 1825 
he was elected Governor of the Commonwealth. On 
the 1 8th of January, 1827, he was chosen by the 



1 86 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

legislature a Senator of the United States to succeed 
John Randolph of Roanoke, and resigned the Gov- 
ernorship to accept that office. During this term 
of his senatorship he was a member of the great State 
Constitutional Convention; and in 1833 he was re- 
elected to the Senate. In 1839 he was nominated 
on the Whig ticket for Vice-President with General 
William Henry Harrison; and was elected. Presi- 
dent Harrison died a month after his inauguration; 
and Vice-President Tyler became President. During 
his administration Texas was annexed to the Union. 
He presided in 1861 over the deliberations of the 
Peace Conference, called by the Virginia Legislature 
at his suggestion, which met at Washington; and 
he died in the service of his State and country on 
the 17th January, 1862, at Richmond, Virginia, while 
a member of the first Confederate States Congress. 
Of his great ability, his far-sighted and disinterested 
statesmanship, his incorruptible personal and polit- 
ical integrity, and his unselfish patriotism there 
was no more genuine admirer than Gordon, who 
though differing with him politically in the later 
period of his public career, continued to his death 
to cherish the personal friendship which had grown 
up and continued between them from the time of 
their early service together as members of the Vir- 
ginia House of Delegates. 

The other Senator from Virginia was Mr. Taze- 
well. "It is a coincidence in the lives of Mr. Taze- 
well and his father," says Mr. Grigsby in his "Dis- 
course," "that the father was elected to the Senate 
of the United States to fill a vacancy caused by the 
resignation of John Taylor of Carolina; and that 
the son, after an interval of thirty years from the 
election of the father, was chosen to fill the vacancy 
in the Senate made by the resignation of the same 
individual; and that father and son were twice 
elected President of the Senate." 

William Wirt has left a graphic portraiture of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 187 

Tazewell in his youth in "The Old Bachelor"; and 
Francis Walker Gilmer, himself one of the most 
gifted and brilliant young men of his period, has 
drawn him with masterly touch as he was before he 
entered the United States Senate. Mr. Grigsby's 
"Discourse" presents him at length, and in the ma- 
jesty of his intellect and person. It was said of him 
on the occasion of his death, by his fellow townsman, 
Mr. George Loyall of Norfolk, that "Virginia had 
conferred upon him her highest official trusts. Her 
generous confidence he requited with a deep and fer- 
vent devotion, laying upon the altar of her stern and 
simple political faith the offerings of matured wis- 
dom, and upholding in all seasons, with a lofty 
patriotism and the utmost energies of his powerful 
intellect, her right and honor. Standing upon the 
great principles that lie at the foundation of our insti- 
tutions, the powers of the Federal Government, as 
limited and defined by the compact and the rights of 
the States in all their integrity he regarded as vital 
to the preservation of the Confederacy and the sta- 
bility of our republican system. Whether in repell- 
ing open assaults upon the Constitution, or meeting 
at the threshold covert abuses of delegated power, 
no man within our border saw more clearly, or more 
directly and firmly trod the path of duty before him. 
Personal asperities engendered by political strife, 
and which too often follow in the train of collisions 
of opinion and partisan warfare, were alien to his 
nature." 

He had been elected to the legislature soon after 
coming to the bar; and he was one of its members in 
the memorable session of 1798 that saw the introduc- 
tion of Mr. Madison's famous resolutions. He went 
to Congress from the Williamsburg district in the 
next year, succeeding Judge Marshall in that body. 
He declined a re-election, and removed from 
Williamsburg to Norfolk, where he practised his 
profession until 1825, when he was elected United 



1 88 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

States Senator. He resigned his seat in the Senate 
in 1833, and was soon after elected Governor, which 
office he also resigned before the end of his term. It 
has been said of him that "it was the subject of deep 
regret that one possessing such colossal powers should 
have been so unwilling to exert them"; and he has 
been compared in his career to Chief Justice Wilmot 
of England, as one of the great men of history who 
sought an obscurity that he could not win. 

The roster of the Federal Senate of this session 
bore, among others hardly less prominent, the illus- 
trious names of Daniel Webster, John M. Clayton, 
James Iredell, Robert Y. Llayne, Hugh L. White, 
Edward Livingston, William R. King and Thomas 
H. Benton. In the House of Representatives were 
Edward Everett of Massachusetts, Churchill C. 
Cambreleng of New York, James Buchanan of Penn- 
sylvania, Daniel L. Barringer of North Carolina, 
Robert W. Barnwell and Warren R. Davis of South 
Carolina, Richard Henry Wilde of Georgia, Richard 
M. Johnson of Kentucky, John Bell, David Crockett, 
Cave Johnson and James K. Polk of Tennessee, 
James Shields of Ohio and Edward D. White and 
Clement C. Clay of Louisian^a.^ The talent was 
largely with the South; and the politics of the "Vir- 
ginia School" were dominant. 

Congress met December 7, 1829; and Jackson 
began with his first message the self-willed and im- 
perious policy that served at an early date to alienate 
many of his former followers, and to disrupt what 
had been the republican-democratic party of Jeffer- 
son. Many who started out in that session as the 
President's devoted friends and followers, later be- 
came his stoutest enemies. 

Domestic matters detained Gordon at home, after 
the adjournment of the Constitutional Convention; 
and he did not arrive in Washington until the latter 
part of January, 1830. His general allegiance to 
Jackson remained unshaken through this session, and 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 189 

the following one; and we find him writing in De- 
cember, 1830, to Mrs. Gordon of the political com- 
pany he was keeping: "I wrote you that I was at 
Mrs. Peyton's, but did not tell you the mess. We 
have Mr, Tazewell, Mr, White, the Senator from 
Tennessee, the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. 
Ellis from Mississippi, and many others, — all Jack- 
son men." 

The President advocated in his message the direct 
election of President and Vice-President by the peo- 
ple; he advised an inquiry by Congress into the 
constitutionality and propriety of renewing the char- 
ter of the Bank of the United States, which was to 
expire in 1836; and he favored the distribution of 
the surplus revenue among the States. The strict 
constructionists, among whom the Virginia Demo- 
crats were conspicious, were not long in parting com- 
pany with Jackson, upon one or another of his poli- 
cies. Gordon, calling on him at the White House 
during the second session of the 21st Congress, took 
occasion to remind him that he had always been his 
political and personal friend, though he had found 
himself forced to oppose in Congress some of the 
measures which the President had advocated, be- 
cause In his opinion they were wrong. The Presi- 
dent's reply was eminently characteristic. 

"I do not care a damn," he said, "for a friend 
who stands by me only when he thinks I am right. 
The kind of friends I want are those who will stand 
by me when they think I am wrong !" 

Jackson made no allusion in his first message to 
the tariff; and this was already a matter of burning 
import to the South. The Crawford Democrats be- 
lieved that Jackson could not be relied on to main- 
tain their hostility to protection, the iniquities of 
which had been the subject of condemnatory resolu- 
tions, not only In the General Assembly of Virginia 
during Gordon's membership In the House of Dele- 
gates, but also In the legislatures of Georgia and 



I90 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

South Carolina, which had denounced the tariff of 
1828 as unjust, oppressive and unconstitutional. 
This action on the part of South Carolina developed 
later into the assertion by that State of the doctrine 
of Nullification; — a doctrine which Gordon, while 
consistently opposed to a protective tariff, never 
adopted as a part of his political creed; though the 
little band of Nullifiers in Congress, with Mr. Cal- 
houn at their head, included some of his closest per- 
sonal friends. His attitude to the question was that 
of such resistance to unconstitutional and oppressive 
legislation as Virginia had made to the Alien and 
Sedition laws, — a resistance, which Benton says in 
his "Thirty Years' View," "was an appeal to the 
reason, judgment and feelings of the other States, 
and which had its effect in the speedy repeal of those 
laws." 

The loose-constructionists in the Democratic party 
were in favor of protection and of internal improve- 
ments, both of which doctrines the "Virginia School" 
of Democracy rejected as heretical. The National Re- 
publicans, successors of the Federalists, beheld their 
ranks enlarged by the accessions of loose-construction 
Democrats; the anti-masonic party sprang up with a 
mushroom growth in several of the Northern States; 
the influence of the Bank of the United States allied 
itself to the inchoate mass of opposition to Jackson. 
The tremendous personality of the man himself, — 
his courage, his resourcefulness, his self-reliance, — 
and the inability of the elements antagonistic to him 
to unite closely and compactly upon principles of op- 
position left the victory at last, after a long and bit- 
ter struggle, in Jackson's hands. 

The union of his opponents, such as it was, found 
its cohesive force, during the stormy period of his 
two administrations, solely in this antagonism which 
each constituent element felt towards him; and the 
Whig party, thus originated, continued for several 
years, and until there was a final crystallization of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 191 

political opinions and policies into party action, to 
contain many men of widely divergent minds upon 
the political questions of the day, who marched 
under its banner of opposition to Jackson, without 
subscribing to any of the Whig tenets of Webster 
and of Clay. 

It was only a seeming harmony that existed be- 
tween the Northern and Southern sections of the so- 
called Whig party of the period ; for many southern 
Whigs were as staunch believers in State-Rights as 
were the Southern Democrats; and slavery had Its 
friends among Southern members of the party, as 
it had its opponents among those who called them- 
selves Whigs in the North. 

i:^rom the organization of the Whig party in 1833 
in opposition to Jackson, to the time in 1837 of the 
return of Calhoun, Tazewell, Gordon, and the State- 
Rights Democrats who had co-operated with it, to 
the Democratic party, hostility to Jackson was its 
fundamental tenet. This must appear at once from 
a glance at its extraordinary make-up. Into the 
Adullam cave of discontent with the President were 
gathered the incongruous hosts of the old National 
Republicans, or "loose-constructionists;" the NuUi- 
fiers, led by Calhoun; the Jeffersonian Republicans, 
who were "strict constructionists," and while oppos- 
ing nullification, yet condemned Jackson's proclama- 
tion as unconstitutional; other southern Republi- 
cans, like Randolph of Roanoke, who sympathized 
with every move, however extreme, against the Bank 
of the United States, and yet were willing to take 
up arms In opposition to the force-bill and the procla- 
mation; the Democrats, who antagonized a bank, 
yet regarded the President's removal of the deposits 
as arbitrary, usurpative and unconstitutional; the 
anti-masons, whose party had grown up about the 
historic masonic episode of Morgan; and others, 
whose political opinions agreed with those of no 
party or faction. It was a strange aggregation 



192 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

which included in it Webster, and Calhoun, and 
Henry Clay, and Robert W. Barnwell, and John 
Quincy Adams, and John Tyler, and Warren R. 
Davis, and William F. Gordon. 

At the time of Gordon's first arrival at the Capital, 
the famous Webster-Hayne debate was in progress. 
It did not interest him. He listened to Mr. Web- 
ster for a little while, and wrote home that "he did 
not strike the Virginia note." Gordon had been 
listening for three months to Marshall, and John 
Randolph, and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, and Up- 
shur and Tazewell in the Virginia Convention. 

On the 13th of April, 1830, the leading Demo- 
crats in Washington gave a dinner to celebrate Mr. 
Jefferson's birthday. It appears to have been the 
first occasion on which such a testimonial to the mem- 
ory of the great republican leader, then dead not 
quite four years, was ever made; and there was no 
one more interested in the event than was Gordon, 
who took an active part in promoting it, and was 
a member of the committee of Congressmen who 
had in charge the arrangements for the function. In 
anticipation of the occasion, which was expected to 
be a notable one, he wrote to Mrs. Gordon on the 
9th of March from Washington : 

"Wc have determined to celebrate the birthday of 
Mr. Jefferson; and yesterday I waited on Mrs. Ran- 
dolph to ascertain the day of his birth. We expect 
to give an impulse to free and true principles by a 
celebration of the advent of our great Star of Free- 
dom." 

The dissensions in the ranks of Democracy were 
emphasized by the occurrences at this dinner, which 
was attended by both President Jackson and Vice- 
President Calhoun. The strict-constructionists were 
in charge of the details, including the toast-list; and 
the toasts indicated an exaltation of the doctrine of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 193 

the reserved rights of the States, according to the 
gospel of Jefferson. 

Niles' Register, a National Republican organ, con- 
tained in its issue of April 24, 1830, a long account 
of the dinner; and blazoned abroad its political 
significance. 

"Jefferson's birthday, 13 April, 1830," says the 
Register, "was celebrated by a numerous party of 
members of Congress and others, at Brown's Hotel. 
Mr. John Roane of Virginia presided, assisted by 
Mr. Bibb of Kentucky, Mr. Woodbury of New 
Hampshire, Mr. Grundy of Tennessee, Mr. Cam- 
breling of New York, Mr. Gordon of Virginia, and 
Mr. Overton of Louisiana. Among the invited 
guests were the President and Vice-President of the 
United States, and the Secretaries of State, War and 
the Navy. After dinner twenty-four regular toasts 
were given, with speeches of considerable length 
from Messrs. Bibb, P. P. Barbour, Woodbury, 
Hayne, and Wayne of Georgia ; and some of the 
volunteers by Messrs. Hubbard of New Hampshire, 
Potter of North Carolina; and Pope, Governor of 
Arkansas, made a few remarks. There were about 
eighty volunteers; together, one hundred and four 
toasts." 

President Jackson took fire at what he regarded 
as a suggestion of nullification during the speaking; 
and after the regular toasts offered "a volunteer," 
which later became a slogan of his followers: — "Our 
Federal Union: It must be preserved." Calhoun 
accepted the implied challenge, and offered his 
"volunteer:" — "The Union: Next to our liberty 
the most dear; may we all remember that it can only 
be preserv'ed by respecting the rights of the States, 
and distributing equally the benefit and burden of the 
Union." 

It was the open declaration of a state of war on 
either side, where hostilities were actually begun. 

13 



194 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Niles continues, in the same issue of the Register: 
"It (the dinner) was intended for political effect, — 
to bring out the weight of Mr. Jefferson's name in 
favor of the new doctrines concerning State Rights, 
and against internal improvements and domestic 
manufactures;" and concludes that "the speeches 
and the toasts abundantly prove this." 

Gordon's simple announcement in his next letter 
home, April 23, 1830, was: "We had a splendid 
celebration of Mr. Jefferson's birthday. The pa- 
pers and political parties are making it a dinner for 
political effect. I trust, if it has any, it will be to 
bring into the administration of our affairs the prin- 
ciples of our great countryman." 

The House Journal of the first session of the 21st 
Congress, which adjourned on the last day of May, 
1830, shows that Gordon took the oath as a mem- 
ber on January 25, preceding. On the ist of Feb- 
ruary he wrote to Mrs. Gordon: 

"I am greatly pleased that we can communicate so 
speedily by letter; and, if need be, that at any time 
I can soon be at home. I removed last evening on 
the Hill to Dawson's boarding-house, where I have 
a genteel mess of Virginia and Southern members. 
I am quite comfortably situated, with a wood fire, 
which is a luxury after having been ten winters dusted 
with the coal. 

"As yet I have made but few acquaintances. Be- 
ing a stranger, I wait for the civilities of others. I 
have not as yet got cards for visiting, which I am 
told are necessary to the city circles. I shall, how- 
ever, endeavor to retain as much of my country man- 
ners as possible. Colonel Barbour is my next door 
neighbor. Mr. Tazewell and Mr. Alexander, from 
Virginia, on the southside of James River, Doctor 
Hall from North Carolina, Colonel Benton, Senator 
from Missouri, and Mr. Yancey of Kentucky, for- 
merly from AJbemarle, and J. S. Barbour, form 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 195 

my immediate mess. We dine and live alone; and 
from appearances live quite genteelly, I have not 
yet seen Mrs. Stevenson. To-morrow I am to dine 
with the President which will be a new scene." 

He was not long, however, in making acquaint- 
ances and friends. Many of his Virginia associates 
were in Washington ; and in his next letters home he 
tells Mrs. Gordon of seeing her friend, Mrs. Ran- 
dolph and two of her daughters, at Mr. Van Bu- 
ren's, and of meeting other friends. 

"I visited Mrs. Randolph a few days after I saw 
you last," runs his letter of February 7, following. 
"She seems to be comfortably fixed, and the estab- 
lishment showed much of taste in all that I observed. 
She seems a little pensive, and says she feels some 
of the pains of an exile." 

"The session is becoming somewhat more inter- 
esting than it has been," he writes in the same month, 
"although I cannot yet see what the policy of the 
administration will result in." 

His votes were consistently in line, throughout the 
session, with the political sentiments which he had 
always entertained. He voted against pension bills 
and against all the money bills offered for internal 
improvements, including the bill to make a national 
road from Buffalo to New Orleans, a bill for a stock 
subscription by the Government to the Maysville and 
Lexington Turnpike, a bill for the incorporation of 
the Alexandria Canal Company, a bill for govern- 
ment subscription to the stock of the Louisville & 
Portland Canal Company; and he voted to sustain 
the President's veto of the Maysville Turnpike bill. 

During this session he was deeply interested in 
the contested election case of George Loyall against 
Thomas Newton, involving a seat in the House from 
the Norfolk, Virginia, district. Mr. Loyall had 
been his friend and associate in the General Assem- 
bly and in the Convention; and Gordon had the 



196 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

gratification of seeing the contest decided in his favor. 
"Loyall has got his seat," he writes jubilantly to 
Mrs. Gordon on the i6th of February, 1830, "and 
is a great acquisition to us." 



CHAPTER XIII 

IN CONGRESS THE NULLIFIERS NULLIFICATION 

AND SECESSION 

The second session of the 21st Congress beginning 
on the 6th day of December, 1830, saw the breach 
between Jackson and many of its members, his for- 
mer supporters, still widening. The President's 
message again attacked the Bank of the United 
States; and dealt with the subject of internal im- 
provements from the standpoint of the strict con- 
structionists. Congress, however, passed a harbor 
improvement bill which Jackson concluded to sign; 
and the Jeffersonlan Republicans, who had been fol- 
lowers of William H. Crawford, grew more uneasy 
and anxious. Crawford had practically retired from 
politics, and was out of public life; and the Virginia 
Jeffersonians were beginning to look to Mr. Cal- 
houn as his successor. Crawford, himself a Vir- 
ginian by birth, had moved to Georgia in his boy- 
hood, where, studying law and entering politics, he 
illustrated his talents by a subsequent career of great 
distinction. He had been United States Senator; 
had declined the Secretaryship of War under Mr. 
Madison, and had filled with ability and success 
the office of Minister to France. He had succeeded 
Dallas as Secretary of the Treasury, and had been 
a sturdy opponent of internal improvements by the 
Government. He had been nominated for President 
through the influence of the Virginia school, as the 
most conspicious representative of the Jeffersonian 
Democracy; and had received forty-one votes In the 
electoral college, including those of Virginia and 
Georgia. But disease had now sapped his vigor; 
and Calhoun's political star seemed to be in the as- 
cendant. 



198 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

The estrangement between Calhoun and Jackson 
had grown Into undisguised hostihty; and in the 
same month in which Congress adjourned in 1831, 
the Vice-President pubHshed his famous attack upon 
the President. Gordon, who had been a follower of 
Crawford, took sides with Calhoun as against Jack- 
son. Calhoun's attack upon the President, which 
had been expected since the Jefferson birthday din- 
ner, was followed by the dissolution of the Cabinet. 
Jackson for some time past had hardly seemed to 
trust his Calhoun secretaries; but relied for advice 
and assistance upon Mr. VanBuren, and a party of 
unofficial friends, who were dubbed by his enemies 
"the Kitchen Cabinet." VanBuren resigned from 
the Cabinet in order to enable Jackson to request the 
resignation of its other members, which he promptly 
did. 

The war between Jackson and Calhoun was now 
on in all its ferocity; and was characterized by such 
a bitterness of feeling and of expression on the part 
of their respective followers as has been seldom 
known in American politics. Calhoun's hostility to 
Jackson had its inception In the former's strict con- 
struction views of the reserved rights of the States; 
and was the beginning of that mighty championship 
of the "Institution" of slavery, which depended for 
Its existence on the State-Rights doctrine that was 
so long and ably upheld by his relentless and Inex- 
orable logic. 

Though Mr. Calhoun has been condemned by the 
generations which have followed the abolition ot 
slavery for his attitude upon that profoundly perplex- 
ing and difficult problem, yet an unsympathetic and 
often hostile biographer, of an antagonistic school of 
political thought, has paid him the tribute that his 
genius must compel from history. "The name of 
Calhoun," says Dr. Von Hoist In his biography in 
"The Statesmen Series," "conveys a much more defi- 
nite Idea to the American people than that of either 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 199 

Webster or Clay; and this difference will be steadily 
increased in his favor. The simple explanation of 
this remarkable fact is that Calhoun is in an infi- 
nitely higher degree the representative of an idea; 
and this idea is the pivotal point on which the his- 
tory of the United States has turned from 18 19 to 
nearly the end of the first century of their existence 
as an independent republic. From about 1830 to 
the day of his death, Calhoun may be called the very 
impersonation of the slavery question. From the 
moment when he assumes this character his figure 
towers far above all his contemporaries, even Jack- 
son not excepted; while up to that time he is, in 
spite of his uncommonly brilliant career, only an able 
politician of the higher and nobler order, having 
many peers and even a considerable number of su- 
periors among the statesmen of the United States." 

It is unnecessary to dwell upon here, or even 
to attempt an outline of the life of Mr. Calhoun, 
which was personally as blameless as that of some 
of his distinguished compeers was the reverse; or to 
recount the positions which he filled with conspicuous 
dignity and honor. The idea for which he labored, 
and upon which he spent the energies of an unsel- 
fish and devoted personality, perished almost within 
his gaze, and its memory with many is that which 
the conquerors of lost causes keep. But the spirit 
in which the great statesman and logician main- 
tained his cause, and the genius and glory which he 
manifested in its maintenance are worthy of the most 
vivid and glowing page in the history of the Ameri- 
can Republic. 

About Calhoun, in the struggle which began over 
protection, and went through nullification to seces- 
sion and war, were gathered at this early period a 
group of men who for their ability and patriotism 
may not inaptly be compared to the Girondins who 
assembled about Isnard and Barbaroux, to perish 
for freedom, in the time of the French Revolution. 



200 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

The story of the Nulllfiers is a story of talents and 
of tragedy. 

Conspicuous among the South Carolinians in the 
2 1 St Congress were Robert W. Barnwell, Warren 
R. Davis, and George McDuffie, all three of whom 
were adherents of the State-Rights view, and with 
each of whom Gordon maintained an intimate per- 
sonal association. Mr. Barnwell's career is pre- 
sented In a later chapter. Of the other two there 
was none of his associates in Congress with whom 
Gordon stood in a friendlier or more admiring rela- 
tion than with Warren R. Davis, orator, wit, poet 
and party leader — who was the delight of every 
social gathering that he entered; whom Benton 
named as one of the ablest debaters of the session; 
to whom John Randolph appealed in a memorable 
letter to Mark Alexander, as to the leader of the 
Jeffersonian Republicans in the House; and whose 
death occurring on the 29th of January, 1835, while 
Congress was in session, was deplored in the Senate 
by Mr. Calhoun in a speech of lofty and splendid 
eulogium. 

Davis, who was born in May, 1793, settled in 
Pendleton, South Carolina, at the same time that 
McDuffie settled in the same place. "Mr. Davis 
succeeded," says his biographer, "and got business. 
Mr. McDuffie had none." Davis was elected to 
Congress in 1824, and continued to represent his 
district until his death in 1835. "His life was short," 
the writer above quoted remarks of him, "and I 
had almost said a merry one. Every company in 
which he mingled experienced the joy of his wit. 
Indeed, humor was his nature; he rioted always in 
its wild luxuriance." He espoused the cause of Nul- 
lification with all the fiery ardor of his disposition 
and his brilliant speeches and his witticisms, after 
his untimely death, came to be household words in 
the mouths of his friends. He was the chairman 
of the important House Judiciary Committee, of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 201 

which Gordon became a member as soon as he en- 
tered Congress; and of which the other members 
of that session were WiUiam W. Ellsworth of Con- 
necticut, Henry Daniel of Kentucky, Edward D. 
White of Louisiana, Thomas F. Foster of Georgia, 
and Samuel Beardsley of New York. 

"A cat is a good nullifier," Davis said one day, 
as he chanced to tread on a feline tail, and felt aveng- 
ing claws set in his leg. "She knows it is her tail that 
I trod on, and she doesn't care a rap whose foot it 
is that she claws." 

His gift of graceful versification is illustrated in 
the lines written by him to the old Scotch air of 
"Roy's Wife of Ardavalloch :" 

"Johnson's wife of Louisiana, — 
Johnson's wife of Louisiana, — 
The fairest flower that ever bloomed 

'Neath southern sun on gay savannah. 

"The Inca's blood flows in her veins, — 

The Inca's dreams her dark eyes lighten, — 
Child of the sun, like thee she reigns, 
To cheer our hopes, our sorrows lighten. 

"Her mind is radiant with the lore 
Of ancient and of modern story; 
Her sprightly wit, of nature's store, 
Bedecks her with a rainbow-glory. 

" 'Twas such a vision, bright though brief, 
In early youth my fond heart rended ; 
Then left me, like the withered leaf, 

On life's most rugged thorn suspended." 

It was on the occasion of Mr. Davis' funeral, held 
at the Capitol, that the attempt to assassinate Presi- 
dent Jackson was made by Lawrence, a crazy car- 
penter. This occurrence, which came near being a 
tragedy, is graphically described in a letter from 
President Tyler, then one of the Senators from Vir- 
ginia, to his son Robert Tyler, written from Wash- 
ington, January 31, 1835: 

"My son : I am very much pleased at a letter which 



202 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

General Gordon showed me from you this morning, 
in return for his kind recollection of you in having 
forwarded Mr. Adams' oration (on Lafayette's 
death). You very properly returned him your 
thanks for the favor, and he is obviously very much 
gratified at the terms employed in your letter. I 
dined a few days since at General Jones' with Gov- 
ernor Dickerson, who enquired after you. My ob- 
ject, however, in writing to you was to give you an 
account of an occurrence which transpired yesterday, 
and to ask that you will walk down to Judge Sem- 
ple's and inform him of the facts. 

"Warren R. Davis died two nights ago, and yes- 
terday the funeral ceremonies were performed in the 
House of Representatives. The members of both 
Houses were present, and the President of the United 
States, with the members of his Cabinet. The pro- 
cession moved from the hall, through the rotunda, 
to the east porch of the Capitol, — the House first, 
the Senate second, followed by the President, etc. 
I was unwell, and concluded not to go to the grave; 
and after getting to the porch, I stepped out of the 
line of procession to the right. I had not been stand- 
ing there more than a minute before I heard an ex- 
plosion, similar to that produced by an ordinary 
cracker, which caused me to turn around, when I 
perceived a man standing in front of the President, 
about four steps off, with a pocket pistol pointed at 
the President. The report immediately followed, 
of the same character with that I had a moment 
before heard. The President immediately raised his 
cane and made at him; but before he could strike, 
the fellow was seized and thrown down, the Presi- 
dent still pressing on him, and when preparing to 
stick his cane into him was drawn off. The fellow 
was immediately transferred to the civil authorities, 
and now lies in jail to await his trial at a future 
day. 

"It seems that he had two pistols, each of which he 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 203 

had attempted to discharge ; but they were with per- 
cussion locks ; the day was very damp, a thick mist 
prevailing, and although the caps, by their explosion, 
must have been as fine as were ever used, the powder 
did not ignite. They were found to be well loaded 
with the finest powder, and it is almost a miracle that 
they did not go off. 

"The man is said to be an Englishman by birth; 
to have been in this city some three years; to be a 
painter by trade; and to have given, on more occa- 
sions than one, evidences of derangement. He was 
asked, I learn, by Mr. Randolph, the sergeant-at- 
arms of the House, what led him to attempt the life 
of the President. He replied : 'Because he killed 
my father three years ago !' There is nothing but 
madness in all this. 

"The effort will doubtless be made to turn this 
to political effect. Although Ravaillac killed Henry 
IV, of France, although one madman attempted to 
shoot George III., and another killed Mr. Percival, 
the prime minister, In the Parliament house; yet If 
a madman attempts to kill General Jackson It must 
be used for party effect. 

"Your father, 

John Tyler." 

Singularly brilliant and unusual as were the talents 
of Warren R. Davis, they were eclipsed by those of 
his great compeer and fellow South Carolinian, 
George McDuffie. McDuffie was born in Georgia In 
1788. He studied law, and settling at Pendleton, 
South Carolina, failed to get practice until taken into 
partnership by a prominent local lawyer with a con- 
siderable business. His rise In his profession, thence- 
forth, was almost without parallel; and cases poured 
in upon him from every direction. In 1821 he was 
elected to Congress, and thenceforth "delighted 
Senators and governed men with his eloquence." He 



204 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

took front rank among the opponents of the tariff 
legislation of the period; opposed the removal of the 
deposits by Jackson in a powerful speech, character- 
izing it as "an act of usurpation, under circumstances 
of injustice and oppression, which warranted him in 
saying that the rights of widows and orphans had 
been trampled in the dust by the foot of a tyrant;" 
and was the strongest and boldest of the Nullifiers in 
the celebrated Nullification Convention of South 
Carolina. In December, 1834, he was elected 
Governor of his State; and in 1842 he became a 
Senator from South Carolina in the United States 
Senate. Here he was a prominent advocate of the 
passage of the Sub-Treasury Bill and of the annexa- 
tion of Texas, both of which measures he had once 
antagonized. 

Lacking the genial qualities which endeared War- 
ren R. Davis to the hearts of his associates, Mc- 
Duffie was in youth, manhood and old age remarka- 
ble for his taciturnity and reserve. It has been said 
of him that "he literally seemed to commune with 
himself; yet there were occasions, when he met old 
friends and companions, in which he seemed to enjoy 
life with as much zest as any man." Chief Justice 
O'Neall of South Carolina said of McDuffie in an 
address delivered in 1851, the year of his death: 

"With a thousand times more honesty, McDuffie 
has surpassed the most brilliant efforts of France's 
greatest orator, Mirabeau. McDuffie, with a head 
as clear as a sunbeam, with a heart as pure as honesty 
itself, and with a purpose as firm as a rock, never 
spoke unaccompanied with a passionate conviction of 
right, which made his arguments as irresistible as the 
rushing flood of his own Savannah." 

The story of Nullification does not need repeti- 
tion here at any great length or in detail. The Nulli- 
fication Ordinance was adopted by a State Conven- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 205 

tion held at Columbia, South Carolina, November 
19, 1832. It formally declared the tariffs of 1828 
and of 1832 to be "null, void and no law, nor bind- 
ing upon South Carolina, her officers and citizens;" 
and it forbade the collection of tariff duties within the 
State after February, 1833. It also declared that 
should the United States use force. South Carolina 
would secede from the Union. 

The relation of the question of Secession and of 
the tremendous tragedy of the War between the 
States in 1 861-1865, in organizing which South Caro- 
lina bore a leading part, to the nullification measures 
of 1832 have been dealt with by many historians 
and writers. The verdict of impartial history must 
be that this was no new and astounding doctrine in 
politics thus advanced, although its appearance was 
so grave and threatening; but that in one form or 
another the doctrine of nullification had already been 
proclaimed by more than half the States at that time 
constituting the Union : by Georgia, Virginia, Ken- 
tucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
Rhode Island, Ohio, New York, North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Maine. 

On December 16, 1832, the President issued his 
Nullification Proclamation, and sent a naval force 
to Charleston Harbor. A tremendous excitement 
agitated the States, and was felt throughout the Un- 
ion. The military of South Carolina were gathered 
together, and volunteers strengthened the militia for 
defense. 

On December 24, 1832, Gordon wrote from 
Washington to Mrs. Gordon: 

"I might have visited you at Christmas. The 
weather is, however, very cold; and I daily expect 
the river will be frozen up. Indeed our anxiety for 
the fate of the country is such that I am unwilling 
to be absent a single day from the scat of govern- 
ment. Wc of the South have been sadly disap- 



2o6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

pointed in the course of the President towards the 
wrongs of our country. A spirit of violence and not 
of conciliation seems to be the order of the day 
which if persevered in, must have the worst conse- 
quences. The course of South Carolina was marked 
by much indiscretion, and should therefore have been 
met by more prudence on the part of the President. 
I yet hope for the best. The mediation of Virginia 
may turn away for a time the disaster of disunion — 
bad enough at any time, and in any way, but greatly 
to be deprecated, if stained with civil blood. We are 
waiting with great anxiety to hear how the proclama- 
tion of the President will be received in South Caro- 
lina. You must not be unhappy about our affairs. 
Virginia will have an important part to act in the 
great political drama which seems to be at hand; 
and I doubt not will act worthily of herself. A little 
prudence in our rulers would yet compose everything. 
Of that, however, there is but slight hope, and if the 
good sense of the people does not overrule the mad- 
ness of the rulers, great confusion may ensue." 

The Force Bill was introduced, and a great debate 
followed in the United States Senate, in which Cal- 
houn, who had resigned the Vice-Presidency, and 
now represented South Carolina, defended the State- 
Rights doctrine with unsurpassed ability. He intro- 
duced his famous resolution, reciting that the States 
are united "as parties to a constitutional compact"; 
and that the theory that the people of the United 
States "are now or ever have been united on the prin- 
ciple of the social compact, and as such are now 
formed into one nation or people" is erroneous and 
false, both in history and reason. Calhoun sup- 
ported the resolution in a speech of unanswerable 
power and inexorable logic, before which Webster, 
the champion of centralization, sat mute, defeated by 
the South Carolinian's argument. The Federalist 
writers have since skimmed the surface of the his- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 207 

toric incident, or have fled from it as an instance in 
illustration of Calhoun's "metaphysical politics." 

But the horrid front of war disappeared. Clay, 
the great compromiser and pacificator, brought in a 
tariff bill, which provided that the tariff should be 
gradually reduced, so that after the expiration of ten 
years it should become "a tariff for revenue only." 
South Carolina rescinded her nullification ordinance; 
and the disputed proposition whether Jackson would 
have undertaken to carry out his threat to "hang 
Calhoun" in the event of secession, was never settled. 

The tariff question and the slavery question were 
already beginning to become the subjects of a politi- 
cal agitation, which has continued in the former in- 
stance, with more or less persistence, down to the 
present day; and in the latter until the abolition of 
"the institution" by the judgment of war. In May, 
1832, Gordon wrote from Congress to Mrs. Gordon: 

"To-morrow we enter on the Tariff debate in 
which the destinies of the Union are involved. After 
that is dismissed or acted on, we shall shortly ad- 
journ. I shall not despair of the republic, although 
I am hoping almost against hope. There is, how- 
ever, this consolation, that affairs can scarcely be 
worse than they are at this time. The great interests 
of the Confederacy are in conflict; and all the com- 
posure and virtue of the best men are necessary to 
settle them harmoniously. Our own State for the 
.present has less to apprehend from any vicissitudes 
than any other. She has made so many offerings on 
the altar of peace and union, that even her enemies 
must acknowledge 'if Rome must fall, that she at 
least is innocent.' " 

The tariff act to which Gordon alluded was ap- 
proved on July 14, 1832, after having passed the 
House of Representatives by a vote of 132 yeas to 
6^ nays, and the Senate by 32 yeas to 16 nays. It 



2o8 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

repealed all previous acts in relation to fixing the 
rates of duties, and imposed new ones, that were 
free, specific, compound, ad valorem and minimum. 
The free list was greatly extended; but the tariff had 
not yet become a tariff for revenue only. It was the 
tariff that South Carolina met with Nullification and 
the threat of secession. 



CHAPTER XIV 

IN CONGRESS THE BANK CONTROVERSY THE RE- 
MOVAL OF THE DEPOSITS THE VIRGINIA 

RESOLUTIONS 

The bill to enforce the tariff, commonly called in 
South Carolina "the Bloody Bill," whose opponents 
in the Senate, with the exception of Senator Tyler of 
Virginia, had refused to vote, was passed and signed 
by Jackson, with the result of arousing great feeling 
in the South. But in the spring of 1833 the Presi- 
dent stirred up a profounder and wider-spread excite- 
ment than anything in connection with Nullification 
had caused. In his first administration President 
Jackson had recommended that Congress should 
order the removal of the public funds from the Bank 
of the United States, where existing law designated 
they should be kept, with authority in the Secretary 
of the Treasury to cause their removal, provided he 
should thereafter give his reasons for such removal 
to Congress. Congress had refused by a large ma- 
jority to follow the President's recommendation. 
Jackson, believing his reelection to the office of Presi- 
dent for a second term indicated public approval of 
his attitude towards the Bank, determined to force 
the removal of the government deposits. 

Louis McLane, of Delaware, his Secretary of the 
Treasury, refused to obey the President's order of 
removal, and was retired from the Cabinet. Wil- 
liam J. Duane, of Pennsylvania, appointed by Jack- 
son to succeed McLane, proved as intractable as his 
predecessor. Duane was removed, in turn; and 
Roger B. Taney, of Maryland, whose name is linked 
in history with his removal of the deposits while 
Secretary of the Treasury, and with the decision of 
14 



2 10 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the Dred Scott case, while Chief Justice of the United 
States, carried out Jackson's order with relentless 
courage. The removal was not a physical deporta- 
tion of government moneys from the coffers of the 
Bank, for no funds then in the Bank of the United 
States belonging to the government were really re- 
moved. The famous "removal of the deposits" con- 
sisted in the official order for the future deposit of 
all incoming revenues in various designated State 
banks, which soon obtained the political appellation 
of "Jackson's pet banks." 

The 23d Congress met in its first session on the 
2d of December, 1833, ^^^ ^^e President sent in his 
message, together with the report of the Secretary of 
the Treasury, defending the removal of the deposits. 
The Whigs in the Senate, comprising the National 
Republican Senators and those of the Calhoun State- 
Rights Democracy, constituted a majority. Mr. 
Clay introduced resolutions condemning this execu- 
tive action in relation to the government funds, and 
a debate ensued which lasted three months. The 
resolutions of censure were adopted; and Jackson 
responded with a protest, charging that the Senate 
had in effect impeached him, without giving him an 
opportunity to defend himself. Benton, of Missouri, 
offered a resolution to "expunge" the resolutions of 
censure from the Senate Journal; and around this 
inflaming subject raged for a long time the struggle 
between the President and the opposition. The war- 
fare finally culminated in the triumph of Jackson, 
and the expunging from the Journal of the resolu- 
tions of censure by the adoption of Benton's famous 
expunging resolution. ^ 

In the House of Representatives the situation was 
different. There the jacksonlan Democracy had In- 
dicated by a strong majority its adhesion to the Presi- 
dent by the re-election of Mr. Stevenson, an ardent 
supporter of the Administration, to the office of 
Speaker. Gordon had voted In 1832 against re- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 211 

chartering the Bank, and he had supported in the 
Virginia House of Delegates a resolution declaring 
it to be the opinion of that body that the law of Con- 
gress establishing the Bank was not authorized by 
the Constitution. But he believed none the less that 
Jackson, in removing the deposits, had, in the lan- 
guage of the resolutions of censure, "assumed upon 
himself authority and power not conferred by the 
Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both." 
He was supported in his position by political opinion 
at home, for the General. Assembly of Virginia 
adopted resolutions condemning the removal of the 
deposits; and he was selected as the vehicle of their 
presentation to the House of Representatives. How 
divergent, however, the views of individual Demo- 
crats might be, and what dissensions were created in 
the party by the President's policies and measures, 
are perhaps nowhere better illustrated than in the 
case of John Randolph of Roanoke, who, then in the 
sere and yellow leaf, had written to Mark Alexander 
in the June preceding the removal of the deposits, 
and apparently with a willingness to go to any ex- 
treme with Jackson in his war on the Bank: 

"I write to entreat you to tell Warren R. Davis 
and his colleagues that if, by their votes, the United 
States Bank Bill shall pass the House of Representa- 
tives, they will receive the curses loud and deep of 
every old-school Republican of the South." 

Yet when the fight was well on between Jackson 
and Calhoun over Nullification, Randolph sided with 
the South Carolinian, and denounced the President 
as a "Djezzar Pacha," and his proclamation as a 
"ferocious and blood-thirsty" document. 

On March 3, 1834, Gordon presented to the 
House the Virginia resolutions. They were as fol- 
lows: 



212 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"Whereas the General Assembly of Virginia deem 
it of the utmost importance that the power to con- 
trol the public revenue should be made to abide in 
practice, where it has been vested by the Constitu- 
tion, in the immediate representatives of the people, 
and of the States, in Congress assembled; and all ex- 
perience of the practical operations of governments 
has proved that arbitrary assumptions of power by 
them, or any officer of them, if silently acquiesced in, 
become precedents for further and still greater acts 
of usurpation; therefore 

"i. Resolved by the General Assembly, That the 
recent act of the President of the United States, ex- 
erting a control over the public deposits, by causing 
them to be withheld and withdrawn, on his own re- 
sponsibility, from the United States Bank, in which 
they had been ordered to be placed by the act of Con- 
gress chartering the said Bank, is in the judgment 
of the General Assembly a dangerous and alarming 
assumption of power by that officer, which cannot be 
too strongly condemned. 

"2. Resolved, That while the General Assembly 
will ever be ready to sustain the President in the ex- 
ercise of all such powers as the Constitution has con- 
fided to him, they, nevertheless, cannot but regard 
with apprehension and distrust, the disposition to 
extend his official authority beyond its just and 
proper limits, which he has so clearly manifested in 
his recent interference with the Treasury Department 
of the Federal Government, in the exercise of a sound 
discretion, which Congress had confided to the head 
of that Department alone. 

"3. Resolved, That our Senators in Congress be 
instructed, and our Representatives requested, to use 
their best exertions to procure the adoption by Con- 
gress of proper measures for restoring the public 
moneys to the Bank of the United States; or, at 
least, for causing them to be deposited therein for the 
future, according to the direction and stipulation of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 213 

the act of Congress chartering the said bank; if, at 
the time of their action on the subject, the said bank 
be, in their opinion, a safe depository of the public 
treasure. 

"4. Resolved, That the General Assembly cannot 
recognize as constitutional the power which has been 
claimed by Congress to establish a United States 
Bank, because, in the opinion of the General As- 
sembly, as they have heretofore solemnly declared, 
that power is not given to Congress by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

"5. Resolved, That the General Assembly do not 
intend, by the declaration of their opinion in regard 
to the unconstitutionality of the Bank of the United 
States, to qualify, or in any manner to impair, the 
force of their disapprobation of the withholding and 
withdrawing of the public deposits. 

"6. Resolved, That the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth be requested to transmit a copy of these 
resolutions to each of our Senators and Representa- 
tives in the Congress of the United States." 

Gordon supported the presentation of these reso- 
lutions by a characteristic speech, which embodied 
the attitude of the strict constructionists. 

"In offering these resolutions," says the official 
report, "Mr. Gordon said he rose for the purpose of 
presenting to the House resolutions passed by the 
General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia 
on the subject of the removal of the public treasure 
from its deposit in the Bank of the United States, 
where it had been placed by law. The General As- 
sembly of Virginia have been deeply impressed with 
the importace of the principles involved in this ques- 
tion; and, after the most deliberate consideration, 
have come to resolutions condemning the course of 
the President of the United States, instructing their 
Senators, and requesting the Representatives from 
the State of Virginia to use their efforts to restore 



214 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the deposits to the Bank of the United States. The 
General Assembly have considered this as a question 
of liberty, in which the principles of a limited con- 
stitution have been violated by the practice of the 
Chief Magistrate, in assuming authority properly to 
be exercised by other departments of the Govern- 
ment. The General Assembly of Virginia and the 
people of Virginia have heretofore yielded to no por- 
tion of this Confederacy in respect and affection for 
the present Chief Magistrate of the United States; 
but the General Assembly and the people standing 
on their long-cherished and oft-defended ground of 
constitutional construction, and their own estimation 
of the principles and practices of government, best 
calculated to secure the blessings of freedom, have 
spoken on this occasion in a language not to be mis- 
understood. The General Assembly consider the re- 
moval of the deposits from the Bank of the United 
States, in the manner it has been effected, on the re- 
sponsibility of the President, as 'a dangerous and 
alarming assumption of authority,' tending to con- 
centrate in that officer all the powers of government. 
The legislative functions of Congress, and the judi- 
cial authority of the courts, have both been invaded. 
The province of the courts, patiently to examine and 
correctly to ascertain facts by the consecrated trial by 
jury, has been utterly disregarded; and the Chief 
Executive officer of this Government, although di- 
rected by law, if he deemed there had been an infrac- 
tion of the bank charter, to direct a scire facias to 
issue, in order to a trial by a court and jury, has him- 
self adjudged the questions, on ex parte testimony, 
and determined that the bank has forfeited its char- 
ter; thus in his own person deciding, the question of 
the violation of the charter, involving high penalties 
on the part of the bank, without sending it for adjudi- 
cation to the tribunals marked out by the Constitu- 
tion and laws. The first clause of the Constitution 
declares, that 'all legislative powers, herein granted. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 215 

shall be vested In a Congress of the United States, 
which shall consist of a Senate, and House of Repre- 
sentatives.' This legislative power had vested In the 
Secretary of the Treasury an important discretion, to 
remove the deposits from the Bank of the United 
States. The President, consulting with his then Sec- 
retary of the Treasury, found that the Secretary did 
not think there was any good cause for the removal 
of the deposits from the Bank of the United States; 
and, notwithstanding a divided cabinet on the sub- 
ject, dismissed the Secretary of the Treasury from 
office, and replaced him by one whose opinions were 
known to concur with his will on this subject; thus 
abusing his power of removal, and interfering In- 
juriously with that discretion which the law had con- 
fided to the Secretary of the Treasury. By these as- 
sumptions and Indirections, the President has done 
what he had no power to do directly, under the Con- 
stitution and laws of the country. 

"There is not a man in America who will not deny 
to the President the power directly to control the 
public revenue unless he derives his authority from 
appropriations made by law. 

"We, the representatives of the people, hold in our 
hands the purse-strings of the people's money; and 
fatal to their rights, and interests, and freedom, — 
most fatal, — will it be whenever they are surrendered 
into the hands of any Executive Magistrate. He has 
no direct authority either to raise, appropriate, or in 
any manner to dispose of, or use, the public revenue. 

"The General Assembly do not deny, nor did he 
(Mr. Gordon) the power of the President, under the 
law, to remove from office any unworthy officer; but 
they do deny to the President the right to remove a 
faithful officer, to effect that which he had no right- 
ful authority to effect in any way. This abuse of the 
power of removal, and assumption of power over 
the treasure of the country, was a dangerous enlarge- 
ment of the power and patronage of the President, 



2i6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

already endangering the purity and independence of 
the other departments of the government, and calcu- 
lated to enable the Executive Magistrate successfully 
to appeal to the worst passions of his partisans, in- 
stead of establishing a reliance on the purity and wis- 
dom of his administration. 

"The patronage of this government, wielded by 
one man, with the power of putting in and putting 
out at his will and pleasure some forty thousand offi- 
cers and agents, great and small, to whom the im- 
mense revenues of this country are distributed, is a 
power, in his (Mr. Gordon's) view, utterly incon- 
sistent with the genius of a free constitution. 

"Men are not angels. 'Lead us not into tempta- 
tion' was the wise and meek prayer taught by the 
Redeemer to fallen man. Human virtue is too frail 
to withstand the temptations and influence which an 
ambitious and reckless Chief Magistrate might 
wield; and the Executive Department of the Govern- 
ment, absorbing all the vital and essential powers of 
the other departments, would reduce us, in fact, with 
the forms of a free constitution, in effect, to a simple 
monarchy. 

"There is already a fearful proclivity of power 
towards the Executive Magistrate; and if a construc- 
tion be given to the Constitution by which the Presi- 
dent would have the power to appoint and displace, 
at his mere will, or under the pretext of seeing that 
the laws were faithfully executed, I should feel that 
the power given to the Legislative Department of 
the Government was absorbed in the pretended exe- 
cution of the laws, and the representatives of the 
people had as well hence to their idle homes. He 
(Mr. Gordon) did not admit that the power of re- 
moval gave a right to the President to control all the 
functionaries of their government in the estimate 
which they might make of their duties under the law; 
nor did a faithful execution of the law mean in all 
cases that there should be a wise administration of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 217 

the law. A judge may make a faithful execution of 
his office, and so may a Secretary of the Treasury, 
without carrying any great degree of wisdom into 
their administrations. Indeed, with a few illustrious 
exceptions, if a contrary doctrine is to prevail, the 
officers of all our governments, State and Federal, 
might tremble for their places. Would a judge be 
dismissed who gave an erroneous but conscientious 
judgment? Would the Legislature of Virginia, two- 
thirds of which have a right to remove a judge, exer- 
cise that high power because he had pronounced a 
judgment at variance with their own? If this new 
version of the President's power be admitted, then, 
indeed, he may be considered as holding in his hand, 
and exhibiting to the people and functionaries of the 
government, a golden ladder of preferment, with 
forty thousand rounds, to which so many climbers up 
are perpetually turning their anxious and longing 
eyes, the elevation or disgrace of each depending on 
the will of the President, from the minister who 
represents this great confederacy in foreign courts, 
down to the most inconsiderable postmaster. With 
such an appeal to the hopes and fears and interests 
of our citizens, used to effect any purpose on which 
the President is intent, all opposition In the nature of 
things must be fruitless, unless the people can be 
aroused to redeem their institutions from the exer- 
cise of a power inconsistent with their freedom and 
peace. The power of appointment and removal, even 
when most discreetly and forbearlngly used, Is a fear- 
ful discretion to confide to any one man. 

"Mr. Gordon said he did not himself believe the 
President of the United States had an intention to 
usurp the liberties of his country, but he did believe 
his present course of action would be recorded as a 
monument, and some future man of ambition might 
become, by his example, master of the Confederacy. 

"The General Assembly of Virginia have con- 
sidered It as a question involving the separation of 



21 8 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the powers of a free constitution, and not as a ques- 
tion of bank or no bank. 

"The Constitution of Virginia contains a pro- 
vision, that the Executive, Legislative and Judicial 
Departments of government should be kept separate 
and distinct, so that neither should exercise the powers 
properly appertaining to the other. In the Federal 
Constitution the demarcations of the several depart- 
ments are distinctly made. The Legislative, Execu- 
tive and Judicial powers are assigned to their appro- 
priate organs. 

"The Legislative power is vested in Congress — 
there was none given to the President. He is not a 
representative of the people — he is the Executive 
officer, appointed by the people. His power of veto 
is not a legislative power — it ought to be, as it is, a 
mere negative. No money shall be drawn from the 
Treasury, without an appropriation by law, and the 
question was submitted to the House, as the guardian 
of the Treasury, if large sums of the public money 
have not been withdrawn from the bank without an 
appropriation made by law? It seemed to be con- 
tended by those who justify the course of the Presi- 
dent, that he and the officers under him had the right 
to use the money of the people as they pleased in the 
interval between the time of its collection and the 
time of its appropriation. That they can place it 
where they will, and loan or deposit it to whom they 
will; and contract what those receiving it shall do in 
return. Let us put this to the test of ordinary trans- 
actions in private life; — an agent has power to col- 
lect money for his principal; does it therefore follow 
that he has the power to use it for his own purposes, 
lend it out, make contracts on it? Has he any other 
power than to collect and keep it, and pay it over to 
his principal as soon as possible? Try the President 
by this simple test, and it will be found he has used 
millions of the public treasure in a manner not sanc- 
tioned by the authority under which he acts. The 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 219 

public revenue on deposit, I suppose, usually amounts 
to between seven and eight millions of dollars, and 
the fair interest for its use is worth nearly half a 
million dollars annually. Can any one be so blind 
as not to see the influence and power which such a 
use of the revenues of the counti-y must add to the 
already too extensive patronage of the President? Is 
it deemed that the President, or those who surround 
him, have a right to remove the revenue from the 
places appointed by law, except in a manner pre- 
scribed by law? In this whole matter the President 
had no direct authority to act. 

"Mr. Gordon said there was another great prin- 
ciple of freedom invaded, which he never would sur- 
render. He claimed as a freeman, as a citizen of 
Virginia, one of the members of this great confeder- 
ated Union, either by himself, or his representative, 
to tax himself. It was a great principle of English 
liberty, that taxes were the free gift and grant of the 
Commons; and he believed if the King of England 
should at any time invade or impair this right, he 
would hear from his indignant subjects that no more 
taxes would be paid until there was a reform. He 
insisted that as Congress only could raise revenue, so 
also could they alone direct everything appertaining 
to the revenue, both as to its preservation and distri- 
bution. 

"Mr. Gordon said he claimed, as a representative 
of the people, of those who gave him public leave to 
speak in their behalf, to act as sentinel over the 
public treasure — a post he would never yield, so long 
as he was worthy to speak in the name of those who 
sent him. He greatly regretted, — he considered it 
one of the evil omens of the times, and high as was 
his respect for the distinguished body of which he 
was a member, he could not but deeply lament, that 
on such a question, — on a question of taxation, of 
liberty, — a majority of the immediate representatives 
of the people are seen rallying to the side of power. 



2 20 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

He was deeply mortified that the Congress of the 
United States had not, unanimously, Instantly re- 
proved this perversion of Executive authority; and 
although he had not Intention to make any Illiberal 
imputation on the members of Congress, who were, 
he doubted not, as honorable, as a body, as could 
anywhere be found, yet he would say that If the 
people of the country sustained their representatives 
In yielding to this overwhelming Executive power, 
he should consider that the liberties attempted to be 
secured by this constitution were gone forever. 

"Mr. Gordon said the occasion was a fit one to 
take a rapid glance at the past course of the ancient 
Commonwealth of Virginia In relation to this Gov- 
ernment. She had ever contended for a strict con- 
struction and faithful execution of the limited, 
though extensive, powers delegated by the compact 
to Federal functionaries. Jealous of power every- 
where, — diffusing and limiting it in her own gov- 
ernment, she has looked always with apprehension on 
its too great accumulation In any of the departments 
of this Government. Her warning voice has often 
been heard on this floor In reproof of undelegated 
authority in the legislative department of Govern- 
ment. During the administration immediately pre- 
ceding this, she thought she perceived, in the asser- 
tion of powers in this Government by the then Chief 
Magistrate, an alarming tendency to consolidation 
of all the powers of the States in this Federal head; 
and although these assertions of authority were not 
carried out Into action, she rallied In opposition to 
their bare assertion, and gave her support to the 
present Chief Magistrate, under the confident hope 
that he would administer the Government In a spirit 
of moderation, according to the Constitution, and 
bear himself with a meekness and simplicity in his 
high office, congenial to the spirit of our institutions, 
and thus adorning the high military reputation by 
which he had attracted the admiration of his coun- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 221 

trymen. By her powerful aid the present Chief 
Magistrate was elected; and for the first years of 
his administration she stood almost in solid phalanx 
supporting all his great measures. 

"But it has been with a feeling of deep mortifica- 
tion that she perceived, after the second election of 
the present Chief Magistrate, in which she so heartily 
cooperated, a disposition to enlarge his authority, 
and to administer the powers conferred on him in a 
harsh and overstrained manner. 

"Those of us who stood here last year well re- 
member the universal satisfaction which the message 
of the Chief Magistrate, at the opening of the session, 
diffused over the entire south. It conformed, more 
than almost any paper ever sent to this House, with 
the feeling of moderation and principles of govern- 
ment always cherished by the Commonwealth of Vir- 
ginia. In some of its recommendations it recognized 
the principles of the nullification of South Carolina, 
the ultima thiile of State-Rights. It was calculated 
to destroy nullification itself, by curing all those evils 
for which its advocates contended it was the rightful 
remedy. 

"But what are mortal hopes? The smoothness 
produced in our affairs by this message in six short 
days was ruffled by the storm engendered by that 
fatal proclamation, so hateful to all lovers of a free 
confederacy of the States; denouncing as traitors 
those who professed and paid allegiance to the laws 
of the State that gave them birth when in contact 
with the federal authority, — and that proclamation 
followed up by a special and argumentative message, 
claiming for this Government of delegated and 
limited authority unlimited power over the States, as 
parties delegating that authority — and this message, 
sustained and ratified by the legislative department, 
by a grant of the whole military and naval and fiscal 
power of the Government, to prostrate a gallant and 
talented State of this Confederacy, who had dared to 



222 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

stand for the restoration of long-lost rights, and re- 
monstrate against unconstitutional taxation. When 
we saw a majority of this House and the other voting 
that declaration of war against all the States, which 
throws the sword before the judgment of the 
courts, and subjects this once free confederacy to 
martial law at the will of the President and his col- 
lectors, the Commonwealth of Virginia whose con- 
stitution consecrates the trial by jury, by declaring 
that it should be held sacred — when we saw and felt 
these things, it was impossible not to recoil from 
them; and now, after having compromised and for 
a time settled the conflicts of interest and opinion 
which gave rise to these hateful measures, and after 
the country had become in a great degree composed 
and at peace, the President of the United States in 
the wantonness of power has struck a blow on the 
financial affairs of this country, the fearful vibrations 
of which are heard and felt to the extremities of the 
Confederacy. He had given the death-blow to the 
Bank of the United States by his veto; it would have 
died, it must have died, because the President's tenure 
of office was longer than that of the charter of the 
Bank. But the President, sixty days before the meet- 
ing of Congress, without any public necessity, had 
done a deed of fearful note. In a community of five 
hundred banks, with a paper circulation interwoven 
with every interest of society and affording the actual 
currency of the whole Confederacy; carrying on all 
the exchanges, foreign and domestic, of this great 
continent of States; ministering to the commercial, 
manufacturing and agricultural Industry and enter- 
prise of the country — over the varied and compli- 
cated strings of such an instrument he has thrown his 
gigantic but unskillful hands; and the dissonant and 
jarring sounds which he has produced return upon 
his ear, and discompose the nerves of the whole com- 
munity. 

"These resolutions of the General Assembly of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 223 

Virginia deny to Congress the constitutional power 
to make a Bank of the United States; in which he 
(Mr. Gordon) entirely concurred. For on a former 
occasion he had voted against rechartering the bank; 
and at the last session he had voted against the reso- 
lution in reference to the safety of the deposits in the 
Bank of the United States, — not because he consid- 
ered them unsafe, but because he had no opportunity 
from the late period of the session to examine the 
subject; and he feared the resolution would aid the 
Bank in a future effort for a charter. On his part 
that was a mere negative vote. He felt that on pre- 
senting these resolutions and delivering his own 
\news of the powers of this government, he was per- 
forming no very acceptable service to any large party 
in this House. He believed the question of bank or 
no bank must arise before the session terminates; 
and when it does, he would be found standing by his 
native State, on the narrow isthmus which she occu- 
pied, in strenuous though unavailing efforts to roll 
back the waves of legislative or executive encroach- 
ment on the Constitution and liberties of his country. 
But whilst he believed that Congress had no constitu- 
tional power to incorporate a bank, it should not and 
does not mitigate the conduct of the President for an 
unconstitutional violation of its chartered and vested 
rights. He confessed that the doctrines and prac- 
tices of the Chief Magistrate had greatly alarmed 
his mind; he believed if the President had properly 
construed his right of removal, and that by its exer- 
cise he could control all the officers of Government 
in the discharge of their duties under the law, and 
that a difference of opinion with him is a just cause 
of removal from office, all the other departments of 
the Government must fade away under the gigantic 
powers given to the President, and the people awake 
from their dream of liberty to find that, instead of 
an association of free and confederate States, they 
had in fact erected a despotism, whose horrid features 



224 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

had not been visible until the veil was withdrawn by 
the President. 

"But it cannot be. The power of removal does 
not rightfully imply a power of control and direc- 
tion; otherwise the President to all intents and pur- 
poses would be the Government, and there is no 
effective limit to his authority either under the law or 
the Constitution. He (Mr. Gordon) knew that the 
advocates of power were never at a loss for prece- 
dents; they are an inclined plane down which every 
government has slid into despotism, — and it was the 
duty of Congress to inquire whether this power of 
removal was a power conferred by the Constitution, 
or implied, and given by the legislative department, — • 
and in either case to curb and keep it within strict 
limits. Mr. Gordon trusted that good would arise 
out of evil; that this rash and inconsiderate conduct 
on the part of the President would ultimately tend to 
place the Government on surer and safer founda- 
tions; — and that when it was found in practice that 
there had been an unequal share in the distribution of 
the powers of this Government, given to or assumed 
by the President, those for whom the Government 
was established would in either case apply the 
remedy. Mr. Gordon said that, in regard to the 
present expediency and wisdom of the course of the 
Administration, there would amongst all those who 
would extend their view to the whole circle of our 
affairs, be but one opinion. In this young and grow- 
ing country, comprehending a territory as large as 
Europe, in rapid career of advancement, deficient in 
nothing but capital and labor — and the efforts to in- 
crease both had eventuated in giving to the United 
States that most extended system of banks and paper 
circulation, said to amount to five hundred banks and 
nearly one hundred millions of paper circulation, — 
the credit of these banks and this currency, dependent 
entirely upon public confidence, was as delicate as the 
sensitive plant, and had shrunk from the rude touch 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 225 

of unauthorized power. The President had de- 
stroyed the public confidence in the public currency, 
and the consequence was universal clamor and almost 
universal despondency. 

"He said he felt proud of the position which the 
Commonwealth of Virginia occupied; he trusted 
that her continued efforts in the cause of constitu- 
tional liberty would redound to the peace and honor 
of the Confederacy. Asking nothing for herself, her 
most fervent wish was to see this part of the Gov- 
ernment guided according to those constitutional 
landmarks, in the establishment of which she had 
had some agency; and, in conclusion, he trusted that 
he might be permitted, without offence to any, to say 
that the Commonwealth of Virginia was happy in 
the purity of her own principles and purposes, suffi- 
ciently rich in the spontaneous gratitude which on all 
great occasions she had excited in her sisters of the 
Confederacy, and glorious in being the disinterested 
creditor of mankind in the large advances and gener- 
ous examples she had made in the cause of freedom." 



15 



CHAPTER XV 

IN CONGRESS ORIGINATES THE INDEPENDENT 

TREASURY 

Gordon's speech on the Virginia Resokitions con- 
demning the removal of the deposits had been made 
con amove. A month earlier he had written to Mrs. 
Gordon : 

"We are still in great excitement in Congress. 
When it will subside I know not. The Administra- 
tion I think is overthrown. They cannot carry on 
the Government." 

But he underestimated the entrenched power and 
ability of Jackson. On the 14th of April, 1834, he 
had grown despondent, and wrote : 

"We have no mitigation here of our anxiety for 
the state of the country. The ruinous course pursued 
by the President is developing every day the folly of 
the measure. Three banks in the District within the 
last three or four days have stopped payment; and 
I very much fear that most of the State banks in the 
Union will have the same fate. The ruin to indi- 
viduals will be appalling." 

He was now well out of any sort of sympathy with 
the party of the Jacksonian Democracy, — a situation 
to which he refers in the same letter: "I am getting 
tired of this kind of public life, though I have no 
apprehension that my kind constituents will discard 
me for having the sagacity to see their interest, and 
firmness enough to pursue it. On the contrary, I have 
no doubt that the shouts of applause which so re- 
cently have been raised in favor of the advocates of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 227 

power will be turned into curses deep and loud. The 
conduct of the Executive in this matter is without a 
parallel for its folly." 

In Virginia, as throughout the Union, the removal 
of the deposits had created great excitement. The 
Secretary of the Treasury had set out in detail in his 
report to Congress on December 3, 1833, the reasons 
for issuing the order of removal; and the debates 
which ensued in both the Senate and the House of 
Representatives, continuing for months, are said to 
have illustrated an ability and warmth never before 
displayed in a congressional discussion. 

"The people caught the excitement," says Mr. 
Hugh Blair Grigsbj, in his "Discourse on Tazewell," 
"and public meetings were held in all the commercial 
cities; and memorials were forwarded to Congress 
urging the immediate restoration of the deposits to 
the vaults of the bank. Each memorial, as it was re- 
ceived by a Senator or Representative, was honored 
with a speech from some master spirit. And now the 
most menacing monetary crisis occurred which the 
country had ever seen. In a little less or more than 
six months the Bank of the United States had short- 
ened its line of discounts ten millions of dollars; and 
all the State banks in self-defense were compelled to 
follow the example of that great institution. Confi- 
dence ceased to exist. No man in business could look 
ahead a single day without fear and trembling. Men 
spoke in whispers, and walked doubtfullv as if the 
earth might quake beneath their feet. The result 
was a change in the party relations of those who 
lived in towns without a parallel in our history. And 
it was soon seen that a new party was forming, in 
comparison of which the tertium quid of Jefferson's 
administration was a m.ere bubble floating on the sur- 
face of the stream. In that tempest was rocked the 
cradle of that large and intellectual party, which as- 
sumed the appellation of Whig, which won some 
splendid victories, which encountered some decisive 



228 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

defeats, which then slept awhile, and which has re- 
cently burnished its armor anew for a fresh cam- 
paign. (i860.) 

"Richmond set the example among us of holding 
meetings of the people, with a view of urging the 
restoration of the deposits to the Bank. Watkins 
Leigh and Chapman Johnson made on that occasion 
an appeal to the people of Virginia in favor of a re- 
storation, which was heard from so respectable a 
source with the attention it deserved. The Assembly, 
then in session, which when elected had been favor- 
able to the administration of Jackson, faltered in 
their faith, instructed the Senators in Congress to 
vote for a restoration of the deposits, and on the resig- 
nation of Mr. Rives, who upheld the policy of the 
Administration, elected Mr, Leigh in his stead. 
Even the Richmond Enquirer, its polar star momen- 
tarily obscured, was tossing helplessly on that tem- 
pestuous sea. 

"In this state of things, some of the citizens of 
Norfolk, of both parties, as those parties had pre- 
viously stood, highly distinguished by social position, 
by talents, by wealth, and by their intimate connec- 
tion with our banking institutions, called on Mr. 
Tazewell, and requested him to take the chair at a 
public meeting to be held on the 8th of January, 
1834. He consented to do so, and on taking the 
chair delivered one of the most graceful, most ner- 
vous, and most eloquent speeches that ever fell from 
his lips. In language not to be misunderstood, he de- 
nounced the act of removing the deposits from the 
Bank of the United States, advised their immediate 
restoration, and condemned the whole series of the 
measures of the President of the United States in re- 
lation thereto. A gentleman happening to be present 
who had heard Canning, Brougham and Sir Robert 
Peel from the hustings and in the House of Com- 
mons, declared that the speech of Mr. Tazewell fully 
equalled their grandest efforts on such occasions; and 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 229 

all who heard it pronounced it a wonderful work of 
argument, eloquence, and declamation combined. A 
few days after the meeting, Mr. Tazewell v/as 
elected Governor of the Commonwealth." 

Upon the reassembling of the 23d Congress in 
December, 1834, regulations were made to govern 
the deposit of the public moneys in the State banks. 
The use of the State banks as depositories had begun 
in October, 1833; so that from this date to the 
passage in 1835 ^^ the acts regulating the govern- 
ment deposits, the public moneys were practically 
under the complete control of the President and the 
Secretary of the Treasury. The Secretary of the 
Treasury selected these banks according to his own 
notion ; and an immediate result of the removal of 
the deposits, and the failure to re-charter the Bank 
of the United States, was the springing up o^ what 
has been called "a mushroom crop" of local banks, 
all eager to obtain the Government's patronage as 
a basis for their discounts. 

During the session of 1834-35, Gordon, moved by 
the uncertainty of the Gov^ernment's financial de- 
positories, and seeking, with what Mr. Calhoun in 
private conversation said was "the inspiration of 
genius in statesmanship," to have the government keep 
its own moneys in its own control and subject to its 
own purposes, through its public officials, and thus 
to separate the public business of the government 
revenues from the private business of the money- 
market, devised and proposed to the Congress of the 
United States the scheme of the Independent Treas- 
ury, or Sub-Treasury System, — a financial plan of 
government which gave to its author, after its later 
adoption, the soubriquet of "Sub-Treasury Gordon." 

The measure was one of much simplicity, as are 
most of the great measures of governmental policy 
or of social life. The effect of it was to separate the 
fiscal concerns of government from those of the pri- 
vate banking corporations of the country, on the 



230 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

theory that Congress should have nothing to do with 
the money-market, except to see that the makers of 
a credit currency shall redeem their promises in coin 
or go out of business. Gordon believed that this was 
the duty of the Government, and that there its duty 
ended. 

Gordon's Sub-Treasury Bill provided that the 
revenues of the Government should be left in the 
hands of the collecting officers, or assistant treas- 
urers, throughout the country, to be disbursed, trans- 
ferred and accounted for to the Secretary of the 
Treasury. The fidelity of the Government's agents 
was to be secured by bonds. 

Of its successful operation when finally adopted, 
and after a brief trial, Alexander Johnston, one of 
the fairest and most judicial historians of this coun- 
try, has said: 

"It Inflicted no damage upon the State banks, or 
upon business at large; it did not increase the num- 
ber of offices at the disposal of the President and his 
party, or the power of the President over the com- 
mercial interests of the country; it laid no 'corner- 
stone of despotism' ; its practical operation was much 
more smooth and successful than might have been 
anticipated in a civil service already so far debased; 
and it plainly relieved the Government from any ex- 
cept indirect and remote consequences of suspension 
of specie payments by the banks, and the country 
from the difficulties and dangers incident to the con- 
trol of a national bank by a representative body. Its 
passage opened a hitherto unthought of door of 
escape from a national bank so inviting that it would 
have been foolish for the dominant party not to have 
availed itself of it, and so convenient when triedj that 
it would have been impossible on a fair test to induce 
the country to retrace its steps. Only the momentum 
of the Whig party proper, acquired by years of 
struggle for a national bank, compelled its leaders to 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 231 

keep up for a time a contest whose futility they were 
quick to perceive. The first successful execution of 
the Independent Treasury act made a national bank 
an impossibility with general popular consent, and 
completed the divorce of bank and state," 

On the 20th day of June, 1834, Gordon addressed 
the House of Representatives upon his bill to estab- 
lish an Independent Treasury. The proposition 
came up upon the motion made by him to amend the 
Local Bank Deposit Regulation Bill, then before the 
House, by striking out all of the said bill after the 
enacting clause, and inserting the following: 

"i. That from and after the day of 

in the year , the collectors of the public reve- 
nue at places where the sums collected shall not ex- 
ceed the sum of dollars per annum, shall be the 

agents of the Treasurer to keep and disburse the same, 
and be subject to such rules and regulations and give 
such bond and security as he shall prescribe for the 
faithful execution of their office; and shall receive, 
in addition to the compensation now allowed by 

law per centum on the sums disbursed; so that 

it does not exceed the sum of dollars per 

annum. 

"2. And be it further enacted, That at all places 
where the amount of public revenue collected shall 

exceed the sum of dollars per annum, there 

shall be appointed by the President, by and with the 
advice and consent of the Senate, receivers of the 
public revenue, to be agents of the Treasurer, who 
shall give such bond and security to keep and dis- 
burse the public revenue, and be subject to such rules 
and regulations as the Treasurer shall prescribe, and 

shall receive for their services per centum per 

annum on the sum disbursed : provided it does not 
exceed the sum of dollars per annum. 

"3. And be it further enacted, That from and 
after the day of the whole revenue of 



232 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the United States, derived from the customs, of lands, 
or other sources, shall be paid in the current coins of 
the United States." 

In Benton's "Abridged Debates o^ Congress" the 
author of the proposed amendment is reported as 
having spoken as follows : 

"Mr. Gordon said that it was due to that portion 
of the House who were opposed to the re-charter of 
the United States Bank, and who, nevertheless, dis- 
approved of the course of the Executive in removing 
the deposits, that some of their number should sub- 
mit a plan which should be conformed to their views 
of this very important question. It seemed to be a 
point given up, that the present Bank of the United 
States was not to be re-chartered; and that so far as 
the action of that House was concerned, the de- 
posits were not to be restored to the custody of that 
institution; and a scheme had thereupon been de- 
vised, which seemed as unsatisfactory to the friends 
as to the opponents of the measure, by which the 
public money had been withdrawn from the bank. 
It was said to be the opinion of the President that it 
was extremely desirable the revenue of the United 
States should be collected in specie and not in paper; 
and in connection with which opinion the House had 
heard a new name applied to specie: it had been 
called 'Jackson money.' He now called upon all who 
were in favor of 'Jackson money' to go with him in 
support of the old-fashioned, constitutional notion of 
a hard-money government. His object was to dis- 
connect the Government entirely from the system of 
banks, whether State or Federal. It must be obvious 
to every man acquainted with the times, that the 
country could not get on with its present paper cir- 
culation. The Bank of the United States, the great 
federal monster, closed its doors against all investiga- 
tion of its concerns ; and to rely upon such an institu- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 233 

tion was to sap the foundations of public liberty. 
The advocates of the State banks could not propose 
a system that was satisfactory even to themselves. 
All attempts to control State banks were contrary to 
the Constitution. All the House could do was to re- 
store the public deposits to the authority of the 
Treasurer of the United States. They had no right 
to commit their funds to the State banks; they 
formed an instrument of power which he should be 
very sorry to see put In the hands of the Government. 
The country was in a very unfortunate condition. 
An interminable war had been declared by the Presi- 
dent of the United States against the Bank of the 
United States; but who could doubt that a very 
different state of things would have taken place, if 
the bank had thrown its vast power into the aid of 
the Executive? And should he succeed in substi- 
tuting any combination of banks in its stead, and 
consequently in obtaining a control over their inter- 
ests, it could not but prove a most dangerous instru- 
ment in the hands of any Chief Magistrate. It 
would enable him to tamper with the pecuniary 
affairs of the States; and though its management 
might require more address than would be requisite 
to attain the control of a single institution, yet the 
consequences would be equally dangerous to the se- 
curity of liberty. Whichever way the friends of a 
united and constitutional government turned their 
eyes, they saw equal dangers in the prospects before 
them. Let them, then, endeav'or to simplify the 
fiscal machine; let them endeavor to get a simple sys- 
tem, which should be subject to the control of Gov- 
ernment alone (he meant, the control of Congress,) 
and which should be wholly disconnected with all 
paper money of every description. If the various 
and conflicting opinions of the House could thus be 
compromised, an achievement would be effected In 
favor of a limited and constitutional Government 
such as had never been witnessed before. It must be 



234 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

evident to all, that the whole tendency of government 
was to accumulate power. Whenever an election of 
President was approaching (and when was it at a 
great distance?) all great questions of policy were 
made to bear upon that all-agitating topic. All good 
men began to tremble for our institutions. Amidst 
the strife and rude war of such mighty interests, vir- 
tue and patriotism shrank back in dismay. But 
would gentlemen make no effort to diminish this dan- 
ger? Must there still be a war against internal im- 
provements, a war against the tariff, a war against 
the Bank of the United States, or against the State 
banks, altogether distinct from any regard to the 
happiness of the people? Were the President and 
the Bank to be left in deadly conflict? Must there 
be no end to these political contests? Who could go 
home and leave things in their present condition, and 
not apprehend the worst consequences? He called 
upon the House to make a generous, magnanimous 
eftort to free the country; he invited, he invoked 
them, to give up something of their party prejudices, 
and to unite together to steer in a safe middle course 
the vessel of state, now in such imminent danger of 
rocks on the one side and whirlpools on the other. 

"Lie observed that the measure he had proposed 
was one of extreme simplicity. He should not now 
attempt to go into the details which belonged to it; 
if the principle were approved, the details might be 
easily arranged. He simply proposed to make those 
who received the revenue the agents for its custody, 
when not exceeding a given amount, and constituting 
them the agents, also, for its disbursement. He was 
aware, indeed, that the members of the House had 
so long been in the habit of considering matters of 
revenue as matters pertaining to a bank, that it was 
difficult, perhaps, for them to admit of any other 
idea. But Mr. Gordon did not propose to interfere 
with the banking principle; he had nothing to do 
with their notes, whether small or large. Let them 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 235 

regulate that as they could. He did not interfere 
with the Bank of the LInited States. He went only 
for what was originally intended, and what alone 
was contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, 
viz : that the revenue should be collected in coin. 
Coin was the only legal tender now, yet the Govern- 
ment had made paper substantially such. He was 
for putting an end to this. He was most clearly of 
opinion that the hard-money system was the simplest 
and best the Government could ultimately adopt. 
There might be some objections urged against it. 
Some gentlemen might apprehend that it would with- 
draw too large an amount from circulation. But 
this objection was not well founded. As the duties 
on imports should decrease, the amount of surplus 
revenue would be less and less; it would soon be but 
a few millions. It might be said that the transfers 
of money would not be made as easily as by a federal 
bank with branches. All that would be requisite 
would be drafts from the Treasury, specifying the 
place where the money should be paid. These drafts 
would not be at premium, but would pass as money. 
They would be a substitute for bank paper, and the 
Government would thus be delivered from its con- 
nection with the system of banking; a system which 
all knew to have a corrupting tendency, and which 
must be a perpetual instrument of party spirit. The 
whole world recognized gold and silver as the repre- 
sentative of property; it was the only real money in 
existence. He hoped to see it the money of this gov- 
ernment." 

The report of this speech adds, "The amendment 
of Mr. Gordon was ordered to be printed." His 
invocation to the patriotism of the House, and his 
appeal that its members should rise superior to the 
passions and prejudices of party, were in vain. 
Neither Jacksonian Democracy nor the heterogeneous 
aggregation of Whiggery would touch the proposi- 



236 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

tlon. The amendment, when put upon its passage, 
was overwhelmingly defeated in the House. 

Benton, in the Senate debate on the Sub-Treasury 
Bill, in September, 1837, when the measure had been 
made an administration one by President VanBuren, 
gave as the reason for its rejection by the Congress 
of 1834-35 that Jackson's administration could not 
afford to antagonize the local banks. In reply to 
Mr. Rives, then Senator from Virginia, and always 
a relentless opponent of the Independent Treasury, 
Senator Benton said: 

"The Senator from Virginia (Mr. Rives) repeats 
what has been often told and answered, that the 
friends of the Administration voted in a body against 
Mr. Gordon's Sub-Treasury proposition in 1834. 
They did so, and for a reason both notorious and 
good at that time, but not good now. The Adminis- 
tration could not cut loose from the local banks then ; 
they were allies against the Bank of the United 
States and, as such, had to be saved. They were the 
Half-JVay House in getting from the National Bank 
to the Sub-Treasury; and as such had to be main- 
tained. They are no longer allies, but foes and de- 
serters. They have cut loose from the government, 
and are weight in favor of a national bank; and as 
such, the government is now done with them. It was 
expedient to maintain the connection in 1834; it is 
expedient to let it remain dissolved now." 

Though lost in 1834 and again in 1835, its author 
lived to see the ample vindication of his political and 
financial wisdom in the origination of this great 
statute, upon which his largest fame as a statesman 
is entitled to rest, In the later adoption by President 
VanBuren of the Sub-Treasury scheme as a party 
measure and a rallying cry, and his party's persis- 
tent efforts for Its enactment into law until its final 
adoption. It was VanBuren's espousal of the cause 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 237 

of the Independent Treasury that moved Calhoun, 
the master spirit of the State-Rights Democrats, and 
those who thought with him, like Gordon, to aban- 
don the Whig association, and return to the Demo- 
cracy. "Much time," says VonHolst, in his "Life 
of Calhoun," "was to elapse ere justice was ren- 
dered Calhoun with regard to the course ne saw fit 
to pursue upon the leading question of the day — 
President VanBuren's Sub-Treasury scheme, which 
was to sever entirely and forever the connection be- 
tween the Government and banks of every descrip- 
tion. It was but natural that the Whigs were deeply 
chagrined to see Calhoun part company with them 
in the moment when, as he himself freely admitted, 
the continuance of the alliance would have led to 
the overthrow of the Administration party; but they 
had no right to expect anything else from him. He 
was not guilty of any treachery, nor could he be 
justly charged with inconsistency, though in 1835 
(1834), when the Sub-Treasury scheme was first 
introduced by General Gordon, he had declared it 
'premature,' and in 1836, when the proposition was 
renewed by Benton, 'impracticable at the time,' nay 
even though he had himself proposed the establish- 
ment of a United States Bank for twelve years 'as a 
better and more practical plan to unbank the banks.' " 

Neither Calhoun nor Gordon had ever been a 
Whig. They had associated themselves with the 
Whig party for the single purpose -of opposing the 
autocracy and unconstitutional usurpations of Jack- 
son. They had always belonged to the party of 
strict construction; and they returned together to 
the Democratic ranks upon a fiscal scheme that took 
the hand of the Government off the State banks on 
the one side, while it prevented on the other the 
possible alliance between a national administration 
and a national bank. 

In 1835 Gordon again introduced his Sub-Treas- 
ury Bill; and it was again defeated. 



238 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

In September, 1837, the twenty-fifth Congress 
was convened in extra session. Martin VanBuren 
was President, and the Calhoun Democrats were sup- 
porting the new administration. The President's 
message, which his ablest biographer, Mr. Edward 
M. Shepard, in his "Life" in the "American States- 
men Series," characterizes as "a message which marks 
the zenith of his political wisdom," and as "one of 
the greatest of American State papers," recommended 
the adoption by Congress of the Independent Treas- 
ury. When proposed by the Democratic adminis- 
tration, the Whigs assailed it as an endeavor to break 
down all the banks in the country; and some of the 
Jackson Democrats, calling themselves "Conserva- 
tives," and generally voting with the Whigs in finan- 
cial matters, led in the Senate by Mr. Rives of Vir- 
ginia, and Mr. Tallmadge of New York, also op- 
posed it. Gordon, whose career in Congress had 
ended with the close of his third term in 1835, 
watched from his home in Albemarle the fight that 
was being waged in the national legislature about 
his great project, where on the floor of the House 
of Representatives some of the little band of its sup- 
porters in 1834 and 1835 still remembered him and 
his measure, to eulogize both. In the debate in the 
House, in committee of the whole on the state of the 
Union in 1837, Francis W. Pickens of South Caro- 
lina, who, as Governor of that State something over 
two decades later, gave the order to fire upon Fort 
Sumter, said in the course of a speech advocating 
the bill for a Sub-Treasury: 

"But 1 have said, sir, that I felt myself somewhat 
committed on this subject. In 1835 a friend of mine 
from Virginia (Mr. Gordon), not now a member of 
this House, — and I will here take occasion to 
say of him that he is a gentleman who would 
have done honor to Virginia in her proudest 
days of glory and fame — presented the very 
identical proposition to this House which is 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 239 

embraced in the bill on your table. For that 
proposition, sir, I then voted. I acted from reflec- 
tion, and from a conscientious conviction of the ef- 
fects of that measure to bring about honesty in the 
Government and to secure the independence of the 
people. True I was then but a very young man, and 
had but for a few weeks taken my seat in this House. 
Yet, sir, I had made up my opinion from observa- 
tion and reflection. And although young, yet, to use 
the language applied to another, I was old enough 
'Acta parentum jam legere, et quae sit poterat cog- 
noscere virtus.' 

"Sir, I had formed my judgment then, and have 
not yielded it since. On the contrary, the experience 
between then and now has only tended to confirm 
my conviction. I desire the Clerk to read the propo- 
sition and the vote upon Jt, * * * 

"I will now quote a paragraph from the speech 
of the mover of the proposition, made at the time, 
as illustrating the views under which we acted, which 
too truly portrays what has really happened since, 
and what I fear we will again see if the system be 
continued. Mr. Gordon said : 'There is another 
consideration which has induced me to offer this 
amendment. We may all very plainly see that the 
contest for the Executive office is the rock on which 
the permanency of this republic is likely to be 
wrecked. And the vehemence of this contest will 
ever be in proportion to the Executive patronage. 
But for this, the office would have no allurements 
but for virtuous ambition ; but with this concomitant 
it exerts an influence which may one day prove fatal 
to the federal part of our system. If we do not sepa- 
rate the influence of the Executive from the interests 
of banking corporations, we shall have another con- 
troversy on the subject of banks. The political will 
be united with the money power; the contest must 
come; it will come. You will witness a struggle in 
this Capitol between State banks and Federal banks; 



240 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

and the combatants for the President's chair will be 
found contending in different ranks of Interest and 
influence, whilst they mar the peace of the country, 
and shake the pillars of the Constitution. Separate 
them, I beseech you, representatives of the American 
people, If you wish to put down this fearful contest 
for the Presidential chair — I had almost said Presi- 
dential throne; separate, I beseech you, banking and 
politics. Let the banks facilitate the exchanges of 
commerce, and further the Interests of trade; but 
let them, I pray you, have nothing to do with the 
Government.' " 



CHAPTER XVI 

Gordon's speech in 1835 o^ again proposing 

THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY 

Upon its re-introduction by him in the House of 
Representatives, again as an amendment to the Bank- 
Deposit Bill, on the loth of February, 1835, Gor- 
don addressed the House in greater detail upon the 
significance and effect of his measure. The official 
report of his speech states that "When Mr. Gordon 
had offered his amendment, he addressed the House 
as follows : 

"In presenting the amendment which has just 
been read. I candidly acknowledge that I do not at 
this time entertain a very distinct hope of obtaining 
in its favor the votes of a majority of this body. I 
presented, at the last session, a similar amendment 
to a bill then pending; and I was induced to do so 
by the deep interest felt, both here and elsewhere, 
in the discussions which were then carried on in Con- 
gress, touching the management of the public reve- 
nue. When, within sixty days of the meeting of 
the Congress of the United States, I beheld the ex- 
traordinary spectacle of the executive head of this 
confederacy attempting, through his power of ap- 
pointment, and the practice of removal from office, 
to control and regulate the deposits of the public 
revenue, it did, I confess, awaken in my mind feel- 
ings of the deepest surprise and alarm. 

"In the controversy which was so warmly prose- 
cuted in this House in relation to the subject, the 
members of Congress were divided into two parties — 
one in favor of the continuance of the Bank of the 
United States, and of giving to it the custody of the 
16 



242 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

public revenue ; another in defence of the executive in- 
terference, in its removal, and of substituting the banks 
of the different States. I was one of a small class 
of Representatives on this floor opposed to the Bank 
of the United States, both because it was unconstitu- 
tional, and is an institution capable of wielding a 
power dangerous to republican government, and also 
opposed to the executive interference in any way with 
the revenues of the people, because I considered it 
to be a vital principle in all free governments, that 
the revenue must, in all respects, be under the con- 
trol of the people or their representatives, to whom 
alone it pertained to say how it shall be raised and 
collected, by whom it shall be paid, how it shall be 
disbursed, to what uses it shall be applied, and by 
whom and where it shall be kept, 

"It was argued by the friends of the Executive, 
that such an institution as the United States Bank 
was dangerous to a free government, from its exten- 
sive and powerful influence, as well over the public 
opinion as over the public interest. I con- 
cur in this opinion, and rejoice that the Bank 
is to be put down, but I nevertheless en- 
tirely disapprove of the executive interference, in 
causing the public money to be removed from the 
custody where the law had placed it, to the State 
banks, where the law did not direct it should be 
placed, and because the power and influence of a 
multitude of State banks, scattered over every por- 
tion of the country, dependent on the executive will, 
would be a dangerous extension of the patronage of 
the Executive, especially as the custody and control of 
the revenue were claimed by the friends of the Ad- 
ministration, in this behalf, as an executive power 
derived from the Constitution itself. Perceiving, I 
thought, that the scheme of the Executive would re- 
sult in evils not then anticipated, I looked out with 
anxiety to discover some plan by which the Federal 
Government might be wholly disconnected from the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 243 

organized capital of the country, whether in a na- 
tional or in State banks. And after much reflection 
and consultation with wise and experienced men, I 
proposed to effect it by an amendment to the bill 
then pending, and presented it to the consideration 
of Congress; and I now venture once more to sub- 
mit it to the notice of this body. 

"In taking this step, I am actuated by higher con- 
siderations than a regard simply to the safe keeping 
of the public treasure. I verily believe, and I think 
experience will convince the most incredulous Re- 
publican, that the wise and patriotic framers of our 
Constitution have unintentionally given to the ex- 
ecutive power a fearful and dangerous ascendency, 
which makes it an overbalance to all the other de- 
partments of Government. Limited and circum- 
scribed with the constitutional limits, it is a power too 
great to be confided with safety to any human being. 
According to the new construction placed upon its 
extent by the present incumbent, and his supporters 
in his behalf, it is a mass of power such as the bene- 
ficent Author of the world could alone wield with- 
out danger to human liberty. What is this body? 
What are the representatives of the American peo- 
ple? Before the might of the executive arm they 
yield as a rush. When that exalted officer unrolls 
the scroll of his might, when he exhibits to their 
anxious eyes the endless roll of honorable and profit- 
able appointments which await his pleasure, who 
among us possesses the firmness to turn with averted 
eyes from the golden bait of interest and power? 
And who can sustain the erectness of his spirit after 
he has reached the goal of his ambition, when he 
feels that he holds his station by the will of one 
man? And when it has become the practice of the 
Government to appoint to the highest of those places 
influential and devoted members of this body, can 
any man expect that a majority of its members should 
long stand up against the influence of this proud and 



244 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

seducing power thus exerted? Let It not be thought 
that I have any wish to speak unkindly of the present 
distinguished Incumbent of the executive chair. I 
contributed my humble aid to elevate him to the seat 
he occupies, and In many, in most of his acts, he has 
my entire concurrence. But I have seen of late, 
under his construction of the Constitution, and the 
support which his doctrine and his course have re- 
ceived, the liberties of this country brought, as I 
conceive, to the most Imminent danger. Owing to 
the attachment of my country to one whom they 
consider as their great and distinguished benefactor, 
the whole land seems to be sleeping in a condition 
which, unless we arouse and exert ourselves, may 
prove the sleep of depotism. 

"Mr. Speaker, this Representative hall presents, 
or ought to present, the true and legitimate fountain 
of public opinion. It is here that the representa- 
tive of the people should take his stand In defence 
of the liberty of the people and his own rights, 
against the overshadowing influence of executive 
power. But, sir, how Is it that we have stood upon 
this floor, and what is the resistance which we have 
presented to executive claims? By pleading the prac- 
tice of the Government during former years, in 
minor Instances, to justify the extraordinary spec- 
tacle of the Chief Executive Magistrate of this Re- 
public controlling, by a single act of his will, the 
whole revenue of the country. In my recollection 
of English history, I remember no instance where a 
question has arisen affecting immediately the rights 
of the people, invaded by the King, that the English 
Commons have not been true to the people's interest, 
against the unjust pretensions of the Crown. But 
here, sir, within these walls, I regret that on almost 
the first great question which has arisen affecting 
the dearest rights of the people, directly invaded by 
executive power, a majority of the immediate repre- 
sentatives of the people are seen rallying on the side 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 245 

of power. Still, had the act of the President, though 
to my mind plainly wrong and unauthorized, re- 
sulted in an equal and beneficial diffusion of the pub- 
lic revenues through the different portions of the Re- 
public, we might have found some room for pallia- 
tion of the illegality of the act in its beneficence. If 
we could not approve, we might at least have ex- 
cused it. But what, sir, in fact, has been the actual 
result of this new and beautiful arrangement of our 
fiscal concerns, so highly lauded by the talented and 
amiable chairman of the Committee of Ways and 
Means? Of the twenty-four millions which consti- 
tute the gross amount of our revenue received from 
the customs, more than thirteen millions, being col- 
lected in one seaport, are deposited in the banks of 
a single State, while the other twenty-three States are 
left to get such fragments of the residue as chance 
or favor may throw into their lot. Yes, sir, while 
the great State of New York, so justly styled the 
Empire State, in addition to all her other advanta- 
ges, natural and political, has her banking capital 
increased by the accession of more than thirteen 
millions of dollars, by a single wave of the executive 
arm, Virginia, the Old Dominion, receives from the 
same arrangement a little more, in gross revenue, 
than two hundred thousand dollars. Ay, sir, that 
ancient Commonwealth that has borne the battle and 
the breeze, which in all emergencies of this Repub- 
lic, if not foremost, has ever been found in the front 
rank in its defence, in this distribution of the Federal 
loaves and fishes, puts into her coffers two hundred 
thousand dollars, while the great State of New York, 
with her army of Representatives on this floor, and 
all her preponderating weight in the councils of this 
nation, receives the modest and inconsiderable sum 
of thirteen millions of dollars. Whenever I think 
of this distribution, it reminds me of Aesop's fable 
of the beasts who hunted with the lion in company. 
We all know how the spoil was divided then, and it 



246 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

is not difficult now to tell who it is that has received 
the lion's share. 

"The proposition I have presented is intended to 
remedy these inequalities. Sir, I have said that the 
Executive, in this Government, was too strong for 
the other departments, from its legitimate constitu- 
tional power. Commander-in-chief of the army, of 
the navy; controlling, in a great degree, the Land 
and the Indian Departments, the Post Office Depart- 
ment, the offices of the customs, the jobs and con- 
tracts authorized by law, — when you superadd to the 
executive patronage this power of dispensing the 
revenue to whatever portion of the country he may 
please, you yield a fearful and highly dangerous ex- 
tension of an authority never, in its simplest form, 
sufficiently guarded or circumscribed. The great 
man of Virginia, Patrick Henry, — a political seer 
who looked far down the stream of time, and who 
foretold with prophetic truth the tendencies of this 
Government, — uttered in the convention of Virginia 
which adopted the Federal Constitution, this sen- 
tentious maxim of political wisdom : 'When you 
give power, you know not what you give.' Sir, it 
is most true. When you give power to a Secretary 
of the Treasury (we know of what stuff they are 
made) to transfer at pleasure the deposits of the 
revenue to such banks as may most successfully 
court his favor, you are adding to the President of 
the United States, whose creature he is, — and that, 
by the legislation of this House, — a most tremendous 
and gigantic power. And how is it to be exercised? 
Is there to be no inequality? Yes, sir, the States 
of the South, and those whose representation is weak 
upon this floor, are to get nothing, although it is their 
agriculture which furnishes two-thirds of the entire 
amount of our commerical exports. Sir, you com- 
promised the controversy about the tariff, but if the 
whole of the States of this Union are to be taxed 
for the exclusive benefit of the bankers and brokers 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 247 

of New York, you are imposing upon the people a 
burden even worse than that of the tariff itself. Un- 
just and oppressive as that was, it had still something 
alluring about it in the encouragement of our own 
fabrications; in the arts which adorn and the arms 
which defend our country — an object which, could 
it be effected with fairness, and without oppression, 
the South would rejoice in. But it is a most gloomy 
prospect to contemplate, that more than half of the 
revenue derived from the customs of this vast coun- 
try shall go into the coffers of New York. Sir, that 
Empire State, with this fearful addition to all her 
natural and commercial advantages, will grow too 
powerful for this Confederacy. That will happen 
with respect to her which Maryland feared would 
happen as to Virginia, unless she should consent to 
cede her western domain. Sir, Virginia put those 
fears to flight. With a view to preserve the equality 
of the States, she did cede her western domain, to be 
formed into States equal and free as herself; for, 
true to principle, she has always preferred liberty to 
power. 

"The State of New York possesses great natural 
advantages, improved by the enterprise of her citi- 
zens and the wisdom of her councils. At this I re- 
joice. Her position is most felicitous. Extensive 
in territory, with the lakes on one border and the At- 
lantic Ocean on the other, binding to her closely 
by ties of interest whole States of the confederacy, 
she is possessed of commercial advantages to which 
she is fairly entitled, and of which I would not wish 
to deprive her. But I would not swell her prosperity 
by political regulations calculated to give her a fear- 
ful preponderancy; for should the political power of 
the President drift to a union with the commercial 
power of New York, they will present a combination 
ominous to freedom. 

"There is another consideration which has in- 
duced me to offer this amendment. We may all very 



248 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

plainly see that the contest for the executive office 
is the rock on which the permanency of this republic 
is likely to be wrecked, and the vehemence of this con- 
test will ever be in proportion to the executive patron- 
age. But for this, the office would have no allurements 
save for virtuous ambition; but, with this concomi- 
tant, it exerts an influence which may one day prove 
fatal to the federal part of our system. If we do not 
separate the influence of the Executive from the in- 
terest of banking corporations we shall have another 
controversy on the subject of banks. The political will 
be united with the money power. The contest must 
come — it will come. You will witness a struggle in 
this Capitol between State banks and Federal banks, 
and the combatants for the President's chair will be 
found contending in different ranks of interest and 
influence, whilst they mar the peace of the country 
and shake the pillars of the Constitution. Separate, 
then, I beseech you. Representatives of the American 
people, if you wish to put down this fearful contest 
for the Presidential chair — I had almost said Presi- 
dential throne — separate, I beseech you, banking and 
politics. Let the banks facilitate the exchanges of 
commerce and further the interests of trade; but let 
them, I pray you, have nothing to do with the Gov- 
ernment. 

"Mr. Speaker, I know and feel under what dis- 
advantages the proposition I have offered comes be- 
fore the House. Sir, I am not the first or the only 
man who has attempted to arrest the course of power, 
and I know at what a hazard the attempt is usually 
made. Sir, the chairman of the Committee of Ways 
and Means has told us that the plan I propose has 
not escaped the notice of the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury. Yet, though that officer has presented us with 
a ponderous, I wish I could say luminous, report on 
the fiscal concerns of this Government, he has passed 
this proposition with a single glance. When the gen- 
tleman from Georgia (Mr. Gamble) introduced a 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 249 

resolution calling upon the Secretary of the Treas- 
ury for a plan to collect and disburse the public 
revenue without the agency of banks, the House 
voted it down. The proposition met with no favor. 
The arrangement was made; the bargain was con- 
cluded; the banks had got the money; they hold 
it now; and the present bill is a little more or less 
than a form, a ceremony, ratifying the bargain con- 
cluded between the organized capital of the country 
and the Secretary of the Treasury. No wonder that 
officer declined entering into the details of a scheme 
which he himself admitted to be of a practical char- 
acter, but which did not suit the purposes of power. 
Sir, the scheme is practicable; and, further, I say 
that it is more simple and more efficient than that 
proposed by this bill. It is true, the amendment is 
elementary only; it proposes the germ, the distin- 
guishing measure only, of the plan I propose; but 
were this agreed upon, how easy would it be to go 
on and perfect the details. Let these collectors be 
put under bond, with sufficient security, and let them 
keep the revenue they may collect until called for by 
the Government. The Chairman of the Committee 
of Ways and Means thinks that this would keep 
too much specie unemployed. Sir, the day has not 
long gone by when this hall, ay, sir, and the whole 
country, rang with the cry of 'specie ! specie !' 'Jack- 
son money!' 'yellow-jackets!' 'down with bank rags!' 
Well, sir, I propose a plan by which the business of 
government will be done in specie, and in specie 
only; and the gentleman tells us that by law it is 
done in specie already. Such, it seems, is now the 
law of the land. Sir, I am glad, exceedingly glad, 
to hear it. If the fact be so, I have proposed no in- 
novation; and ought not the practice of the Gov- 
ernment to correspond with the law? I am not for 
altering such a law. But what does this bill do? 
It makes it indispensable to any bank's becoming the 
depository of the Government funds, that it have at 



250 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

all times a large amount of specie in its vaults. It 
appoints a system of search and inspection to ascer- 
tain the fact; and if it shall be discovered that the 
bank does not keep locked up from circulation a cer- 
tain large amount of specie, the Government deposits 
are withdrawn, and the bank ruined. 

"Surely, sir, the specie in the vaults of a bank is 
as much withdrawn from circulation among the peo- 
ple as in the coffers of a collector of the revenue, 
it lies there merely as a source of credit to the bank. 
But there would only an inconsiderable amount lie 
thus idle at any time. The money would, in effect, 
be as useful as if deposited in the State banks them- 
selves. It would be moving in a constant stream 
into and out of the depositories. The banks might 
possess themselves of the drafts of Government, 
which, being drawn on specie in the actual posses- 
sion of these agents of the Treasurer, in favor of all 
public creditors, would be held as so much specie. 
Such drafts, or I am mistaken, would soon be at a 
premium. There would be no difficulty whatever on 
that score. This plan would probably require the 
creation of a few additional officers, I admit, but 
they would not be many; possibly there might none 
be needed; but in point of patronage they would 
be nothing, compared with this fearful connection 
between the organized capital and the Treasury of the 
Union. If gentlemen will only aid me by bestowing 
on the proposition I have submitted a small share 
of the labor and thought applied to carry into effect 
the State bank system; if they will turn their minds 
earnestly to perfecting its details, they will find 
imagined difficulties fade before them. They will 
soon be convinced that honest and responsible men 
are to be found in this country, who may safely be 
intrusted with the custody of the public treasure. 
The Treasurer, by his drafts, will relieve all diffi- 
culties on the subject of exchange; and the entire 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 251 

system of managing the public revenue will be re- 
duced to the simplest and easiest form. 

"I desire to limit and restrain the executive pa- 
tronage; I seek to keep It free from the corroding 
influence of banks and banking. Sir, I desire no 
longer to have it openly charged upon members of 
Congress that they have been bought and bribed by 
a bank. Let the proposed plan of the chairman of 
the Committee of Ways and Means go into effect, and 
the day is not far distant when gentlemen will be 
charged in the self-same manner with having been 
bribed by the State banks. When a new war of in- 
terest and ambition shall arise, between a renewed ef- 
fort to make a bank of the United States and the ex- 
isting State banks, those who oppose the 
measure will then be told that they are bribed 
by the State banks. Sir, the times are por- 
tentous; all feel It, all know it to be so. 
Everybody knows that pervading anxiety agitates 
the bosoms of the best and wisest patriots of 
the land; and no man can tell how the drama is 
to terminate. Let us, then, endeavor at least to purify 
one source of corruption. Let us cut off at least one 
arm of dangerous and unnecessary power. We shall 
have the bond of those who keep our money; and 
If it is not paid, we will have it paid. Then we shall 
no longer be calculating here how a million and a 
half of dollars deficit In the Treasury, said to be lost 
by default of State banks, can be made to appear 
but four hundred thousand dollars. You will then 
have an honest system of custody for the public 
funds, and one In which the people of the country 
have a deep Interest. Sir, the great body of the 
people do not understand these banking institutions. 
They know nothing about them; nothing, sir, noth- 
ing, but the happy event of bringing the United 
States Bank to an end; and the use made of it for 
political purposes has prevented you from hearing, 
from one end of this Confederacy to the other, one 



252 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

universal cry against the interference of the Execu- 
tive with the public revenue. Sir, the Executive is 
honest; he is frank and open; he promised to kill 
the Bank, and he has killed it. I rejoice at it, nor 
did I quit his side in this contest until I thought he 
had passed the bounds of constitutional warfare, and 
was inflicting wounds on Liberty herself. 

"Mr. Speaker, it is the theory of this Govern- 
ment, and it is no less the wish of the people, that 
the Government shall be wholly dissevered and kept 
distinct from the religion of the nation. The sepa- 
ration is guaranteed in the Constitution by an amend- 
ment proposed by my native State. It is equally 
the provision of that instrument that the Government 
shall be equally separated from the public press. It 
solemnly enjoins that nothing shall be permitted to 
silence that trumpet which summons the people to 
the defence of their liberties. And it will turn out 
to be no less necessary that the action of this Gov- 
ernment shall be separated from all moneyed cor- 
porations organizing the wealth and capital of the 
country. Sir, we have been placed, by the hand of 
Divine Providence, upon a vast and fertile conti- 
nent. We enjoy the freest government under heaven; 
we have a great, a glorious confederacy of free 
States; is it not our sacred duty to guard this fair 
inheritance against the taint of corruption? Sir, I 
declare before this body, upon the integrity of my 
honor, that the effort I have now made is utterly 
disconnected with all party aims and party feeling. 
I believe some such expedient indispensable to liber- 
ty. And were I authorized to speak, I would say 
that I do believe the great man, whose genius and 
whose patriotic valor have raised him to the first 
seat in this Government, would himself, being no 
advocate of banks, prefer such a measure to that 
proposed in this bill. 

"I know there are some slight inconveniences at- 
tending the plan. But these, whatever they may be, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 253 

are but dust In the balance In comparison to the dan- 
gerous tendency of that now held out to us, and 
which may one day shake this Confedracy to its 
deepest foundations. The agitation attending the 
pulling down of the national bank has not subsided 
to this day; the undulation of the billows will long 
be visible; nor will banking controversies, for our 
immense revenues, cease until some efficient substi- 
tute shall be provided by Congress. 

"As to the details of the scheme I have now had 
the honor to propose to the Congress of the United 
States, they may be arranged at leisure when once 
the principle of the scheme Is settled. I did not pre- 
sent my proposition as containing a perfect plan; 
but, if Its principle shall be approved of, the sub- 
ordinate arrangements need be attended with but 
Httle difficulty. 

"Sir, I am fully aware of the desultorv^ and Ir- 
regular manner in which I have been able to present 
my thoughts of the House; but they have been con- 
ceived, I trust. In purity of purpose, as they have 
been frankly uttered. Let us not lend our aid to the 
enactment of laws which go only to swell the al- 
ready portentous tide of executive power; rather, 
whilst we restrain ourselves within the limits pre- 
scribed by the Constitution, let us use our best ef- 
forts to curb executive encroachment on our legis- 
lative rights, and to provide more effectual safe- 
guards for the liberties of the people." 

This speech, proceeding from a man practically 
without a party following, upon a measure which 
was objectionable alike to the old Bank of the United 
States men, and to the administratlonists, neverthe- 
less produced a strong impression on the House, al- 
though it failed to win more than a comparatively 
small number of votes to the support of the measure 
which it advocated. In the debate on the Deposit 
Bill, which had been opened by Mr. James K. Polk 



254 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

of Tennessee, the chairman of the Committee of 
Ways and Means, Gordon's amendment, proposing 
the Independent Treasury, was discussed by Mr. 
Samuel McDowell Moore of Virginia, Mr. Ewing 
of Ohio, Mr. Robertson of Virginia, Mr. Churchill 
C. Cambreling of New York, Mr. Clayton of 
Georgia, and Mr. Wilson of Virginia. 

Mr. Ewing "acquiesced in a large portion of the 
argument of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. 
Gordon) though he could not support his amend- 
ment. The subordinate officers of this Government, 
or any man rewarded with office, merely for party 
services, should never become the depositories of 
the people's money with his consent." 

"Mr. Ewing offered a new bill of twenty-seven 
sections, as an amendment to that of Mr. Gordon;" 
and "rose to remark briefly on the amendment or 
substitute sent to the table, and to move, before he 
resumed his seat, to refer it, with the amendment 
of the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Gordon) and 
also the bill of the Committee of Ways and Meaiis, 
to a select committee to consist of one member from 
each State in the Union. He said he adopted this 
course because the subject was one of deep, general, 
and vital importance to the whole country. Its ef- 
fects will remain when the passions and parties of 
the present day shall have passed to the bourn of 
oblivion; and it should be presented to this House 
and discussed free of all party predilections." 

Mr. Robertson said: "Favoring, himself, the 
principle of that (the amendment) proposed by 
his colleague (Mr. Gordon), so far as it dispensed 
with the agency of banking operations, and desirous 
of seeing that principle embodied into some practi- 
cable plan, he should move a commitment of the bill 
to the committee which had reported it, with in- 
structions to report a plan to effect that object." 

"Mr. Cambreling said: "The gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Gordon) has told us that the Presi- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 255 

dent has 'possessed himself of the whole revenue of 
the country,' and that 'our rights and our liberties 
are in danger.' The gentleman surely cannot have 
forgotten the act of March, 1809, referred to by 
the Secretary of the Treasury, under which all pub- 
lic moneys in the hands of disbursing officers are 
directed to be deposited in banks to be 'designated 
for the purpose by the President of the United 
States' ; an act which was not repealed even by the 
charter of the Bank of the United States, and which 
stands to this day the law of the land. Under that 
act, sir, continued for six and twenty years, our 
Presidents were authorized to control, so far as the 
mere question of deposit was concerned, some five 
hundred millions, for the use of our army, navy, and 
for other Government purposes. If there is any- 
thing substantial in this argument about the union 
of the purse and the sword, or any abuse in the ex- 
ercise of this control over the public money, the legis- 
lative and not the executive branch is responsible to 
the country for its origin. 

" ( Mr. Gordon disclaimed having said anything 
about the union of the purse and the sword)." 

Mr. Clayton said: "In presenting my reasons for 
voting against the bill on your table, and sustaining 
the substitute offered by the gentleman from Vir- 
ginia (Mr. Gordon) I shall briefly urge what I 
have always done against the Bank of the United 
States, viz : that any concern on the part of the 
General Government with banks of any description is 
not only unconstitutional but inexpedient." 

Mr. Mann was disturbed by what Mr. Gordon 
said about the State of New York. "The inference 
which it appears to me necessarily follows from the 
scope of the remarks of the gentleman, taken alto- 
gether, (and I state It as an inference), is, that the 
power of New York is not only too great In the 
Union, but that she will use it for political and im- 
proper purposes of self-aggrandizement." 



256 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Mr. Gordon said that he "had not intended to 
utter a word disrespectful to the State of New York; 
that he admired that State, and its rapid progress and 
improvements; and protested against any inferences 
being drawn by the gentleman from New York ( Mr. 
Mann) which his language did not warrant." 

Mr. Wilson, of Virginia, "was opposed to the 
amendment of Mr. Gordon. Believing that the 
Bank of the United States would not be rechartered, 
he was satisfied that it would be necessary to employ 
the State banks as the fiscal agents of the Govern- 
ment." 

The House refused to recommit the bill; and de- 
feated the amendment of Mr. Ewing to Gordon's 
amendment. The amendment of Mr. Gordon, pro- 
viding for the Independent Treasury, was then de- 
feated by a yea and nay vote of thirty-two yeas and 
one hundred and sixty-one nays. 

The members voting in the affirmative were : 
Messrs. John Quincy Adams, Heman Allen, John T. 
Allen, Chilton Allan, Archer, Barber, Beale, Beaty, 
Campbell, Claiborne, William Clark, Clayton, Amos 
Davis, Davenport, Deberry, Foster, Gamble, Ghol- 
son, Gordon, Griffin, Heath, Letcher, Lewis, Martin- 
dale, McComas, Pickens, Robertson, Spangler, 
Steele, William P. Taylor, Wilde, Williams and 
Henry A. Wise. 

Thus ended Gordon's personal connection with a 
measure which has now been for many decades so 
firmly imbedded in the fiscal scheme of the United 
States Government as that its continued existence is 
likely to terminate only with the end of the Govern- 
ment itself. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE INDEPENDENT TREASURY 

The extra session of Congress in 1837, called by 
VanBuren, adjourned six days after the close of the 
debate on the Sub-Treasury bill. Upon its reassem- 
bling in regular session in December, 1837, the 
measure was again pressed upon Congress by the 
Administration. Mr. Wright, of New York, from 
the Senate Committee on Finance, reported the bill 
on the 1 6th of January, 1838. It passed the Senate 
on the 4th of March, by a vote of 27 to 25, among 
those who voted for it being Benton King of Ala- 
bama, Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire, Walker 
of Mississippi, and Silas Wright. Recorded as vot- 
ing against it were the great triumvirate, Calhoun, 
Webster and Clay. Mr. Calhoun was in favor of the 
bill as Gordon had originated it. But he voted 
against it now because that portion of the original 
measure providing for "hard money" had been 
stricken out. The two Senators from Virginia were 
divided upon it, Mr. Roane voting for the bill, and 
Mr. Rives opposing it. 

"Calhoun now rejoined the Democratic party," 
says Mr. Edwin M. Shepard in his luminous discus- 
sion of the Sub-Treasury, in his "Life of VanBuren," 
in "The American Statesmen Series." "It was only 
the year before he had denounced it as 'a powerful 
faction held together by the hopes of public plunder' ; 
and early in this very year he had referred to the 
removal of the deposits as an act fit for 'the days of 
Pompey or Caesar,' and had declared that even a 
Roman Senate would not have passed the expunging 
resolution 'until the times of Caligula and Nero.' 
But VanBuren, Calhoun now said, had been driven 
17 



258 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

to his position; nor would he leave the position for 
that reason. He referred to the strict construction 
of the powers of the government involved in the di- 
vorce of bank and state. There was no suggestion 
that VanBuren had become a convert to Nullifica- 
tion. But Calhoun could with consistency support 
VanBuren. The Independent Treasury scheme was 
plainly far different from the removal of the deposits 
from one great bank to many lesser ones * * * 
Calhoun joined Silas Wright and the other adminis- 
tration Senators; but he still maintained a grim and 
independent front." 

This grim and independent front was illustrated 
in his refusal to support the administration measure, 
upon which he had returned to the party of the ad- 
ministration, and which had been the most potent in- 
fluence in recalling the strict constructionists, who had 
revolted against Jackson in his fight on the Bank, 
from their affiliation with the Whig party. He re- 
jected it, because it did not contain the hard money 
feature, which had characterized it as Gordon had 
fashioned it. 

The bill went from the Senate, with its narrow 
majority of two votes, to the House of Representa- 
tives, where it was again defeated on the 25th of 
June, 1828, by a vote of 125 nays to iii yeas. 
Gordon's successor, Mr. Garland, from the Albe- 
marle district, was one of Mr. Rives's "Conserva- 
tives," and voted against it. Thus the Whigs and 
the Conservatives again put the measure to sleep. 
Mr. Foster of New York moved a reconsideration of 
the vote by which the bill was defeated. His motion 
was lost by a vote of 205 nays to 21 yeas. 

Once more, in the 26th Congress, the Sub-Treasury 
Bill came to the front. The Senate passed it, by a 
majority of six in a vote of forty-tu^o, on the 23rd of 
January, 1840. It had the hard-money feature re- 
stored, and Mr. Calhoun voted for it. Again it went 
to the House, which on the 30th of June adopted it 



WILLIAiM FITZHUGH GORDON 259 

by a vote of 124 in Its favor to 107 against it, after 
a debate that lacked nothing of the interest which the 
proposition had formerly excited. 

"Again," writes Mr. Shepard, "the wisdom of sep- 
arating bank and state, again the wrong of using 
public moneys to aid private business and speculation, 
were stated with perfectly clear, but uninspiring logic. 
Again came the antlphonal cry, warm and positive, 
against the cruelty of withdrawing the Government 
from an affectionate care for the people, and from 
Its duty generously to help every one to earn his liv- 
ing. In and out of Congress It was the debate of the 
time, and rightly; for it involved a profound and 
critical issue, which since the foundation of the Gov- 
ernment has been second in Importance only to the 
questions of slavery and national existence and re- 
construction." 

The victory thus won, by so narrow a margin, was 
correspondingly brief In Its continuance. Soon after 
the assembling of the 27th Congress in extra session 
in May, 1841, Mr. Clay reported from the Senate 
Finance Committee a bill to repeal the Independent 
Treasury law. The repealing bill passed the Senate 
by a vote of 29 to 18, and the House with amend- 
ments, in which the Senate concurred, by a vote of 
134 to 87. President Tyler signed the repeal-bill; 
and the Independent Treasury scheme was once more 
put out of action. 

In 1846, in the first administration of James K. 
Polk, the Sub-Treasury law was restored to the 
statute-book, there to remain thenceforth as a perma- 
nent part of the fiscal system of the Government. It 
had been the object about which political activities of 
great magnitude and significance had asserted them- 
selves, and over which tremendous Intellects had con- 
tended with equally tremendous passions. It was the 
question on which Clay had taunted Calhoun as 
abandoning his party, and deserting to the enemy; — 
a taunt to which the South Carolinian had retorted, 



26o WILLIAiM FITZHUGH GORDON 

referring to the coalition which John Randolph had 
called that of 'Blifil and Black George,' between 
Adams and Clay, that the latter had upon a memor- 
able occasion gone over, leaving it to time to disclose 
his motives. "Here it was," says Mr. Shepard, "that 
in the decorous fury of the times, both Senators 
stamped accusations with scorn in the dust, and 
hurled back darts fallen harmless at their feet." 

The Independent Treasury scheme was charged 
by its enemies with being a device of VanBuren's that 
was "blood-curdling," and an instrument of tyranny, 
whereby the people were to be ground "to the very 
dust by the awful despotism of their rulers." A 
measure, which in the opinion of such strict-construc- 
tionists as Calhoun and Tazewell, so illustrated and 
distinguished VanBuren's adherence to State-Rights 
as that upon its adoption by him as an administration 
measure, they, and thousands of their way of think- 
ing, left the Whigs to return to Democracy, was de- 
nounced by its opponents as a project of centralizing 
tendencies, and as constituting "a union of the sword 
and the purse" — the very phrase which Cambreling 
had attributed to Gordon's denunciation of the con- 
trol of the deposits in the "pet banks" by the Execu- 
tive, in the debate in the House in 1835. The State 
banks antagonized VanBuren's administration be- 
cause of the Sub-Treasury; and the advocates of a 
National Bank, under a covert defense of State bank- 
ing institutions, fought the Sub-Treasury scheme with 
a no less relentless hostility. The antagonism of 
what Gordon had dubbed "the money power" ex- 
hibited itself in assaulting what it discovered it was 
unable to control. In the debate in the House of 
Representatives, in the session of 1 839-1 840, a mem- 
ber from North Carolina exposed with relentless 
logic the insincerity of the attitude of the national 
bank advocates. "Some gentlemen have been seized 
with a wonderful regard for the institutions of the 
States; lips which have poured forth scorn and de- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 261 

rision upon the doctrine of State-Rights have lately 
used most honeyed phrases, and invoked the South 
to interfere and reject a measure that will destroy 
their local banks. Sir, the real object of this pre- 
tended sympathy is to play on the feelings of hon- 
orable members, and use them to advance a measure 
condemned by our constituents, and utterly repug- 
nant to their interests; they hope to destroy this bill 
(for the Independent Treasury) and establish a 
great national bank, which is so friendlv to the States, 
and so little hostile to their own corporations !" 

The arguments urged against the Sub-Treasury, 
where they did not proceed from those directly or 
indiectly interested in the banks, were political. Mr. 
Webster said that the act was a backward step from 
developed civilized credit to bolts and bars. "The 
use of money," he said "is in the exchange. It is de- 
signed to circulate, not to be hoarded. All that the 
government should have to do with it is to receive it 
to-day, that it may pay it away to-morrow. It should 
not receive it before it needs it; and it should part 
with it as soon as it owes it. To keep it, that is, to 
detain it, to hold it back from general use, to hoard 
it, is a conception belonging to barbarous times and 
barbarous governm.ents." 

This sound doctrine, coming from one of the ablest 
opponents of the Sub-Treasury system, was one in 
which Gordon entirely concurred, because he was as 
hostile to a protective tariff, which he conceived pro- 
duces a surplus, as Webster was to the Independent 
Treasury. With his strict construction views of the 
functions of a national confederated government of 
sovereign States, he thought that no higher tariff" 
duties should be imposed than would afford a revenue 
sufficient to meet the expenses of that government, 
economically administered. This was the view of 
the State-Rights Democracy; and was presented with 
great ability along with the other arguments in de- 
fence of the plan, in a pamphlet by William M. 



262 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Gouge, entitled, "An Inquiry into the Expediency of 
Dispensing with Bank. Agency and Bank Paper in the 
Fiscal concerns of the United States," which is be- 
lieved to be the best exposition of the merits of the 
Independent Treasury System that has ever been pub- 
lished. 

Gouge replied to the objection that the system 
would lock up money and prevent its circulation in 
business, that the Government ought not to have the 
money of business, and there should be no surplus to 
lock up. He said, as Gordon had said, in his pre- 
sentation of the scheme to Congress, that the incon- 
venience of transfer could be overcome by the use of 
drafts; and that specie payment could be maintained. 
He also argued, as Gordon and Pickens, and others 
of their way of thinking, had urged in Congress, that 
the system would decrease executive patronage and 
power; and he presented cogent reasons why the 
probabilities of loss would be less with the Sub-Treas- 
uries than with the banks — an anticipation that has 
been amply justified by events. 

It is interesting to observe, however, how funda- 
mentally the minds of political party leaders may 
differ upon questions of party policy. In the 27th 
Congress the Sub-Treasury matter was condemned by 
the report of the Ways and Means Committee of 
the House of Representatives, made on President 
Tyler's proposed "Exchequer Plan," in the follow- 
ing language : 

"Its model may be found in the imperial institu- 
tions of Darius, the King of Persia, and its principles 
have descended, with little modification and slight 
improvement, it is believed, through all governments 
where banks do not exist, and are now found in per- 
fect operation in the island of Cuba 1" 

Such was the opinion of a Whig Committee of 
Congress of this Democratic measure, which Mr. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 263 

VanBuren is said to have considered a Declaration 
of Independence second only to that earlier docu- 
ment, penned also by the hand of another and greater 
citizen of the same Virginia county of Albemarle. 

The functions and operations of the Independent 
Treasury law have been dealt with by the present 
writer In a volume entitled, "Congressional Cur- 
rency, An Outline of the Federal Money System," 
which was first published In 1895. From that vol- 
ume the following brief statement Is now reproduced, 
as apposite to the subject: 

"The Independent Treasury Act, now on the Fed- 
eral Statute book, became a law on August 6, 1846; 
and though amended In many minor details by direct 
enactment, and diverted from Its original purposes 
by sundry acts of congressional legislation, stands In 
general form as It was originally framed by Its author. 

"There are nine sub-treasuries at the present time, 
located respectively at Baltimore, Philadelphia, New 
York, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, New 
Orleans and San Francisco. Of these the most Im- 
portant, on account of Its location and of the mag- 
nitude of Its transactions. Is that in the city of New 
York. By the provisions of the act passed In 1875 
for the resumption of specie payments, the suspen- 
sion of which by the sub-treasuries took place Decem.- 
mer 28, 1861, the legal tender United States note 
known as the greenback was made redeemable only 
at the sub-treasury In the city of New York. By sub- 
sequent legislation the sub-treasury at San Francisco 
was also authorized to redeem the greenback in 
'specie' ; and these two sub-treasuries remain the only 
ones at which such redemption may be made. 

"Although the Independent Treasury plan, as 
formulated and adopted, contemplated primarily 
nothing further than a better organization of the 
Treasury in Its methods of business, and the 
proper collection, safe-keeping, and disburse- 



264 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

ment of the public revenues; or, as stated by Mr. 
Calhoun in his speech on the Independent Treasury 
bill, delivered in the Senate February 15, 1838, 'to 
take the public money out of the hands of the Ex- 
ecutive and place it under the control of the laws, 
and to prevent the renewal of a connection which 
has proved so unfortunate to the government and 
the banks,' Federal legislation subsequent to i860, 
without materially altering the tenor and form of 
the Sub-Treasury Act, has given to the general 
Treasury system an incomparably greater latitude 
and significance than it possessed in its earlier his- 
tory, and has incorporated into its operation fea- 
tures, which if not at variance with those original 
provisions of the law, were at least never antici- 
pated in the purview of its first plan, 

" * * * The financial war policy which con- 
ceived and created the greenback, with a legal-tender 
feature approved by the judicial determination of 
the highest Federal tribunal; the compulsory enact- 
ment of the Congress which makes the greenback 
redeemable in coin on presentation, and requires it 
to be re-issued immediately on redemption by the 
Treasury Department; and the further financial 
legislation by the Congress, authorizing not only the 
accumulation of silver bullion in the Treasury and 
the coinage of silver dollars on a false ratio, but the 
issue of certificates of deposit and Treasury promises 
to pay against such dollars and bullion, and defin- 
ing the policy of the Government to be the practical 
payment of the greenbacks, silver certificates, and 
Treasury notes in gold coin, have combined to set 
into motion other systems of financial machinery than 
those known to the earlier administration of the 
Treasury Department. Before the enactment of this 
later legislation, the Sub-Treasury system as origi- 
nally established so entirely severed the government 
from the money market that, fortunately, the bank- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 265 

ers and merchants could afford to laugh at the In- 
significance of the Government on their arena; but 
its position was 'never so strong or so sound as when, 
in this point of view, it was most ridiculous.' " 



CHAPTER XVIII 

CONTEMPORARIES IN CONGRESS 1829-1835 

The historians and biographers of the time cov- 
ered by Gordon's legislative experience in the United 
States Congress have concurred in pronouncing the 
Federal legislature of the period a most extraor- 
dinary one for the ability, the distinction, and the 
character of those who then appeared "in the keen, 
bright sunlight of publicity," Of the great majo- 
rity of these men both history and biography have 
alike treated at large; and even were this not so, 
there would be scant space In such a work as the 
present to Inscribe even a list of the names of all of 
them upon Its pages. But of those who were of 
Gordon's own school of political thought, and were 
thrown into a more or less close personal relation 
with him, or who, being marked as out of the ordi- 
nary, however great that ordinary was, attracted his 
attention by any singularity of personal character 
or typical achievement, there were a few of whom 
some words may serve to illustrate the environment, 
and mark the scenes In which he moved. 

Gordon was possessed always of a strong literary 
bent. He was a Shakspearean scholar, not In the 
critical sense, but with an accurate knowledge of the 
dramatist's plays and characters, and an ability to 
use this knowledge alike in the forum and at the 
bar. His acquaintance with the classic authors of 
his tongue was varied and extensive; and his imagi- 
nation was charmed and his sensibilities enlivened 
by whatever was best in the domain of lighter letters. 
"I send you 'The Tales of My Landlord,' " he wrote 
to his wife, a few days after reaching Richmond, 
in 1818, in his first session In the Virginia House of 
Delegates; and with the letter went "Old Mortality," 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 267 

"The Black Dwarf," and "The Heart of Midlo- 
thian," the last of which was that year just from the 
press. One of his earliest letters to Mrs. Gordon 
that was written from Washington, in April, 1830, 
states that he had "got Byron's life, by Moore. It 
is an amusing book; but is licentious and wicked In 
many passages." Shelley, in the earlier decades of 
the century, was "flaming amazement" upon the 
English reading-world. In his poems of ideal beauty. 
They attracted Gordon's attention, as did those of 
Scott and Byron and Moore; but the infidelity, 
and what he conceived to be the immorality, of 
some of them were displeasing to him. "Take the 
book out of the house," he said to one of his sons, 
who brought him the volume, with words of praise 
for "The Skylark." 

It was the literary instinct which, amid the other- 
wise engrossing consideration of political questions, 
enabled him to find recreation and amusement in the 
sympathetic society of such men as Warren R. Davis, 
and his since much better known State-Rights col- 
league from Georgia, Richard Henry Wilde. 

Wilde was a scholar and poet, whose popular fame 
rests largely upon a single poem, as "Single Speech" 
Hamilton's reputation survives in the English House 
of Commons in his one consplciously brilliant oratori- 
cal effort there. Wilde wrote many other verses than 
the melodious lyric, beginning: 

"My life is like the summer rose 
That opens to the morning sky; 
But ere the shades of evening close 
Is scattered on the earth to die;" 

but in it his memory as a poet survives. 

Wilde, like Gordon, opposed Jackson, and did not 
long remain in Congress. Later, he went to Flor- 
ence, Italy, and In that Tuscan city, whose mere 
mention recalls a host of names that are garlanded 
with the wreaths of English poetry and letters, he 



268 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

devoted himself to the study of Itahan literature; 
and won a larger fame with scholars in his discovery 
there of some forgotten documents concerning 
Dante, and a mural portrait of the author of "The 
Divine Comedy," painted by Giotto on the wall of 
the Bargello Chapel, and hidden through interven- 
ing centuries by the obscuring brush of an unknown 
whitewasher. 

Another notable figure, picturesque and unusual, 
who came to his political end on account of his op- 
position to Jackson, was David Crockett, who was 
a member of Congress from 1827 to 1831 from 
Tennessee. It was said of him that he won his elec- 
tions to the Tennessee legislature and to Congress 
from the backwoodsmen of his constituency by tel- 
ling humorous stories and by his skill with the rifle, 
and that he never read a newspaper and never made 
a speech. He was of the stuff, however, of which 
heroes are made; for after leaving Congress he 
joined the Texans in their struggle for independence, 
and died with Bowie and Travis and the other mar- 
tyrs to liberty, who fell in her cause in the bloody 
massacre of the Alamo. 

Crockett's election to Congress afforded a subject 
of infinite jest to some of the newspapers of the 
period. The Philadelphia Ariel, describing the back- 
woodsman's methods of campaigning, said that 
"while his competitor was telling the people of his 
great merits, Davy was giving practical evidence of 
his by grubbing up a stump which two ordinary men 
would have abandoned in despair. This striking 
demonstration of statesmanlike qualities was irre- 
sistable to the yeomanry of Tennessee, and the elec- 
tion of our worthy Davy was carried by acclama- 
tion." 

An anecdote is told of him, which Is said to have 
given him great vogue among the Southern mem- 
bers in Congress. He was sitting one day, with 
several of his colleagues, in the office of the old 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 269 

"Indian Queen" hotel, a hostelry in Washington 
much frequented by the statesmen of the period. A 
Massachusetts member, standing at the door, turned 
and called to the Tenneseean, "Come here, Crockett! 
Here are a lot of your constituents !" Crockett and 
his companions crowded to the door, and saw a 
drove of mules passing the tavern. "Where are 
they going, Crockett?" queried the Bay State states- 
man. 

"They air a-goin' to Massachusetts to teach 
school," replied Crockett with a grin, and returned 
to his seat amid the applause of his companions. 

Crockett said on one occasion that although he 
was no speaker, he intended to make a speech in 
the House of Representatives, for he saw no reason 
for his being diffident, as he could lick any man in 
it. Although he lacked the gift of oratory, he 
wielded the pen of a ready writer, and wrote a num- 
ber of books, among them a characteristic "Auto- 
biography," and a "Life of Martin VanBuren, Heir 
apparent to the Government." During his first 
term in Congress he attended a dinner given by Presi- 
dent John Quincy Adams, of which he gave the fol- 
lowing account: 

"When we went in to dinner I walked round the 
long table looking for something I liked. At last 
I took my seat just beside a fat goose, and I helped 
myself to as much as I wanted. But I hadn't took 
three bites when I looked away up the table at a 
man called Tash (attache). He was talking French 
to a woman on t'other side of the table. He dodged 
his head and she dodged hers, and they got to drink- 
ing wine across the table. If they didn't, I wish 
I may be shot. But when I looked back again my 
plate was gone, goose and all. So I just cast my 
eyes down to t'other end of the table, and sure enough 
I seed a white man walking off with my plate. Says 
I, 'Hello, mister, bring back my plate.' He fetched 



270 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

it back in a hurry as you may suppose, and when he 
sat it down before me, how do you think it was? 
Licked as clean as my hand. If it wasn't I wish I 
may be shot. Says he, 'What will you have, sir? 
and says I, 'You may say that after stealing my 
goose,' and he began to laugh. If he didn't, I wish 
I may be shot. Then says I, 'Mister, laugh if you 
please, but I don't half like such tricks upon trav- 
elers. If I do, I wish I may be shot.' I then filled 
my plate with bacon and greens, and whenever I 
looked up or down the table I held my plate with 
my left hand. If I didn't, I wish I may be shot. 
When we were all done eating, they cleared every- 
thing off the table and took away the table-cloth, 
and what do you think — there was another table- 
cloth under it. If there wasn't I wish I may be 
shot. Then I saw a man coming along carrying 
a great glass thing with a glass handle below, full 
of little glass cups, with something in them that 
looked good to eat. Says I, 'Mister, bring that 
here!' Thinks I, let's taste 'em first. They were 
mighty sweet and good, and so I took six of them. 
If I didn't I wish I may be shot." 

Crockett evidently shone at the state dinners in 
the White House. On another occasion, before he 
broke with Jackson, he was the latter's guest at a 
Presidential dinner given to members of Congress. 
Among other unaccustomed luxuries on the menu 
that confronted Crockett's simple experience, were 
champagne and olives. "How are you getting on, 
Mr. Crockett?" called President Jackson down to 
his guest, with a twinkle in his eye. "First rate. 
President," responded Crockett, as he paused in a 
diligent play of knife and fork: "This here cider 
of yours is the best I ever tasted; but I must say, 
your plums are a little green." 

It was doubtless the literary inclination which dis- 
covered in John Quincy Adams a responsive sym- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 271 

pathy that brought about between Gordon and the 
ex-PresIdent one of the most singular, as well 
as It was among the most interesting friendships of 
the former's political career. Mr. Adams was 
elected to Congress in 1831, as a representative of 
■ the anti-masonic party, from Massachusetts; and 
held the position until his death in 1848 in the 
Speaker's room of the House. Gordon had left 
Congress in 1835, and before Mr. Adams aroused 
the hostility of the South by his persistent presen- 
tation of the petitions for the abolition of slavery 
in the District of Columbia. In his congressional 
career he acted independently of political parties; 
and while he opposed Jackson's conduct in connec- 
tion with the war on the Bank and the removal of 
the deposits, he supported him in his attitude to- 
wards Nullification. There were, therefore, no par- 
tisan differences to keep the two men apart. Adams' 
name led the rest of the thirty-two members of the 
House who in 1835 supported Gordon's Indepen- 
dent Treasury amendment; and a kindly friendship, 
which was a source of much pleasure to the younger 
man, and lasted throughout his stay in the House 
of Representatives, sprang up between them. Two 
years after Gordon's departure from the scene of 
the struggles over the Tariff, the Bank, Nullification, 
and the other great governmental problems of the 
times, a contemporaneous writer, in 1837, gave the 
following graphic picture of Mr. Adams: 

"Our attention is now attracted to a ray of light 
that glitters on the apex of a bald and noble head, 
'located' on the left of the House, in the neighbor- 
hood of the Speaker's chair. It proceeds from that 
wonderful man who in his person combines the agita- 
tor, poet, philosopher, statesman, critic and orator, 
John Quincy Adams. Who that has seen him sitting 
beneath the cupola of the hall, with the rays of light 
gathering and glancing about his singularly polished 



272 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

head, but has likened him to one of the luminaries of 
the age, shining and glittering in the political firma- 
ment of the Union. There he sits, hour after hour, 
day after day, with untiring patience, never absent 
from his seat, never voting for an adjournment, 
vigilant as the most jealous member of the House, 
his ear ever on the alert, himself always prepared 
to go at once into the profoundest questions of state, 
or the minutest points of order. What must be his 
thoughts as he ponders upon the past, in which he 
has played a part so conspicuous? We look at him 
and mark his cold and tearless eye, his stern and 
abstracted gaze, and conjure up phantoms of other 
scenes. We see him amid his festive and splendid 
halls ten years back, standing stiff and awkward, 
and shaking a tall, military-looking man by the 
hand, in whose honor the gala was given, to com- 
memorate the most splendid of America's victories. 
We see him again, years afterwards, the bitter foe 
of the same military chieftain, and the competitor 
with him for the highest gift of a free people. We 
look upon a more than king, who has filled every 
department of honor in his native land, still at his 
post; he who was the President of millions, now 
the representative of forty-odd thousand, quarrel- 
ing about trifles or advocating high principles. To- 
day growling and sneering at the House with an 
abolition petition in his trembling hand, and anon 
lording over the passions, and lashing the members 
into the wildest state of enthusiasm by his indignant 
and emphatic eloquence. Alone, unspoken to, un- 
consulted, never consulting with others, he sits apart, 
wrapped in his reveries; and with his finger resting 
on his nose, he permits his mind to move like a 
gigantic pendulum, stirring up the hours of the past 
and disturbing those of a hidden future; or prob- 
ably he is writing — his almost perpetual employ- 
ment — but what? Who can guess? Perhaps some 
poetry in a young girl's album ! He looks en- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 273 

feebled, but yet he is never tired; worn out, but ever 
ready for combat; melancholy, but let a witty thing 
fall from any member, and that old man's face is 
wreathed in smiles; he appears passive, but woe to 
the unfortunate member that hazards an arrow at 
him; the eagle is not swifter in his flight than Mr, 
Adams; with his agitated finger quivering in sar- 
castic gesticulation, he seizes upon his foe, and amid 
the amusement of the House, rarely fails to take a 
signal vengeance. 

"His stores of special knowledge on every sub- 
ject, gradually garnered up through the course of 
his extraordinary life, in the well-arranged store- 
house of a memory which is said to have never yet 
permitted a single fact to escape it, give him a great 
advantage over all comers in encounters of this 
kind. He is a wonderful, eccentric genius. He be- 
longs to no party, nor does any party belong to him. 
He is of too cold a nature to belong to a party 
leader. He is original — of very peculiar ideas, and 
perfectly fearless and independent in expressing and 
maintaining them. He is remarkable for his affa- 
bility to young persons; and surrounded by them, 
at his own table, he can be as hilarious and happy 
as the gayest of them. For one service, at least, 
his country owes him a debt of gratitude. I refer 
to the fine illustration which he offered of the true 
character of our institutions, when he passed from 
the Presidential palace to his present post on the 
floor of the House of Representatives. Though the 
position which he has there made his own, may not 
be that which his friends might wish to see him oc- 
cupy in that body, yet in every point of view the 
example was a fine one. 

"His manner of speaking is peculiar; he rises 
abruptly, his face reddens, and in a moment throw- 
ing himself into the attitude of a veteran gladiator, 
he prepares for the attack; then he becomes full 
18 



274 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

of gesticulation, his body sways to and fro, — self- 
command seems almost lost, — his head is bent for- 
ward in his earnestness till it sometimes nearly 
touches the desk; his voice frequently breaks, but 
he pursues his subject through all its bearings; noth- 
ing daunts him — the House may ring with the cries 
of order ! — order ! — unmoved, contemptuous, he 
stands amid the tempest, and like an oak that knows 
its gnarled and knotted strength, stretches his arm 
forth and defies the blast." 

One of the delegates from the territory of Ar- 
kansas was Ambrose H. Sevier, who possessed much 
of the talents of his uncle, John Sevier, the celebrated 
Indian fighter, who had moved from his birthplace 
in Rockingham County, Virginia, in early life to 
the Watauga region of North Carolina, and had 
founded there the State of Franklin. Ambrose 
Sevier was a territorial delegate to Congress for a 
number of years; and was elected Senator in 1836. 
He remained in the Senate till 1848; and in that 
year was a member of the commission to make peace 
with Mexico. 

Perhaps the most picturesque and spectacular of 
the Virginians who served with Gordon, as he was 
among the ablest and most distinguished, was Henry 
A. Wise. Wise's first term was Gordon's last, 
namely that of the 23d Congress, which convened in 
December, 1833, and ended in March, 1835. "Of 
the members of this Congi-ess," says Parton, "five 
have been President; five, Vice-President; eight. 
Secretary of State; twenty-five. Governor of a 
State." The same story is told of Wise, who was 
just twenty-seven years old when he entered the 
House of Representatives, as is related of Randolph 
of Roanoke, under like circumstances. "Where is 
Mr. Wise?" asked Speaker Stevenson, when John 
Y. Mason of Virginia presented his boyish-looking 
colleague to take the oath. The Speaker had taken 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 275 

the young member for one of the pages of the House. 
"How old are you, Mr. Randolph?" the same offi- 
cial had queried of Randolph three decades earlier. 
"Ask my constituents, sir," responded the shrill 
voice, which he, who once heard it, is said never to 
have forgotten. 

Henry A. Wise was an orator of brilliant powers, 
a politician of commanding ability, and of the most 
daring and adventurous courage, a statesman of 
great foresight, and an executive of such firm- 
ness and decision of character as were not 
exceeded by any of his contemporaries. He 
left Jackson on the Bank question, joining 
the so-called Whig aggregation; and served 
two additional terms in Congress. He w^as the sec- 
ond of Graves in the famous duel in which the latter 
killed Cilley, an unfortunate episode for which Wise 
was unjustly held to blame by many; and was char- 
acterized by John Quincy Adams, between whom 
and himself there were frequent intellectual colli- 
sions on the floor of the House, as "coming into the 
House of Representatives with his hands dripping 
with blood." 

President Tyler nominated Wise as Minister to 
France; but the Senate refused to confirm the ap- 
pointment. He then became Minister to Brazil, 
where he remained from May, 1844, to October, 
1847. He was nominated for Governor of Vir- 
ginia by the Democratic party in 1855, and after 
conducting the most remarkable canvass against the 
"Know Nothing," or American party, which had up 
to that time ever occurred in the Commonwealth, 
was triumphantly elected. His term had not quite 
expired when the John Brown raid took place; and 
the execution of Brown on the 2d of December, 
1859, was among the last notable events of his ad- 
ministration. He was a member of the Secession 
Convention of Virginia, and a brigadier-general in 
the Confederate Army. In his later years he pub- 



276 AVILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

lished "Seven Decades of the Union; a narrative 
of political history, especially with relation to the 
life and political career of President Tyler." 

The same contemporary pen, which gave the de- 
scription of Mr. Adams, above quoted, wrote of 
Wise at this time: 

"He is remarkably quick in arriving at conclu- 
sions, and generally, too, in a way that would not 
have been struck upon by any one else. He has un- 
doubtedly very high talents, and I have heard him, 
upon more than one occasion, soar into the regions 
of commanding eloquence. His forte lies in invec- 
tive; then he becomes, to those whose party sympa- 
thies follow his own excited train of feeling, thril- 
ling; his pale and excited face, his firm and com- 
pact head thrown back, his small bony hand clenched 
in the air, or vv^ith the forefinger quivering, as if all 
the passion of the orator was concentrated there, 
his eyes brilliant and fixed, his voice high yet sonor- 
ous, impress a picture too vivid to be easily erased 
from the mind." 

Gordon greatly admired Mr. Wise, and was 
warmly attached to him. On one occasion when 
Wise's attitude on some public question was not so 
pleasing to Gordon as had been the former's vote 
for the Sub-Treasury amendment in 1835, Gordon 
said to him, half-provoked and half-amused : 

"Wise, you have a brave and generous heart, but 
a singularly perverted intellect!" 

"General," responded Wise, with great good 
humor, "you are entirely mistaken. I have a very 
able and direct intellect, but sometimes a singularly 
perverted heart !" 

Another distinguished Virginian, who was in Con- 
gress during Gordon's membership, was John Y. 
Mason. He had been a member of the General As- 
sembly and of the Constitutional Convention of 1829- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 277 

1830, in both of which bodies he evinced ability. 
He was chairman of the Committee on Foreign Af- 
fairs during his service in the House, and later be- 
came a Federal Judge of the District Court, and 
afterwards a State Judge in Virginia. He was Sec- 
retary of the Navy under Tyler, succeeding Governor 
Gilmer; and Attorney-General, and again Naval 
Secretary under Polk. He was President of the Vir- 
ginia Constitutional Convention of 1850, and Min- 
ister to France from 1853 to 1859. He died in 
Paris in the last named year. 

Of the thirty-two votes recorded in favor of Gor- 
cion's amendment to the Bank Deposit Bill, estab- 
lishing an Independent or Sub-Treasury, he had the 
gratification of seeing one third, including his own, 
cast by members of the Virginia delegation. 

The Virginians who supported the Sub-Treasury 
plan were John J. Allen, William S, Archer, James 
M. H. Beale, Nathaniel H. Claiborne, Thomas 
Davenport, James H. Gholson, William McComas, 
John Robertson, William P. Taylor and Henry A. 
Wise. It was a support of which the author of 
the measure might well be proud; for these men 
represented no small portion of the best and ablest 
public thought, character and position in the Vir- 
ginia of their day. John J. Allen became a distin- 
guished member of the Supreme Court of Appeals 
of Virginia, and was regarded as one of the strongest 
lawyers of his time. William S. Archer had a long 
and honorable political career, that has been briefly 
narrated in a previous chapter. 

Benton mentions him in the "long catalogue of 
able speakers" in the House, in the ranks of the 
opposition to President Jackson, — a political array 
against the President, which the MIssourian charac- 
terizes as "unprecedented in point of number and 
great in point of ability," and among whom he 
names ex-President Adams, the eminent jurist, Horace 
Binney of Pennsylvania; Bell of Tennessee, later a 



278 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

candidate with Mr. Everett of Massachusetts on 
the Whig Presidential ticket in the momentous cam- 
paign of i860; Rufus Choate of Massachusetts, re- 
garded by many as the most gifted and briUiant 
speaker of his day at the New England bar; Tom 
Corwin of Ohio, wit, orator, lawyer and raconteur, 
of whom his colleague, Choate, once said, "He could 
fill the cup of your eyes with tears in a single sen- 
tence;" Warren R. Davis of South Carolina; Ed- 
ward Everett of Massachusetts, scholar and rheto- 
rician; Millard Fllmore of New York, urbane, pol- 
ished, suave, later a President of the United States; 
Benjamin Hardin of Kentucky, whom John Ran- 
dolph of Roanoke described as "a carving knife 
whetted on a brickbat," and of whom a contemporary 
writer in the Democratic Review said: "Hardin 
was a most provoking and annoying enemy, — 
with his deformed finger, crooked like an au- 
dacious note of interrogation, — his livid face, 
peering with a sneering expression into that of 
his adversary, — his seeming arrogant tone of 
voice — his left hand thrust country lawyer-like, 
with due elegance and grace, into his breeches 
pocket — altogether he was enough to worry 
the most resigned;" George McDuffie of South 
Carolina, the great opponent of the tariff and ex- 
ponent of nullification; Balie Peyton of Tennessee, 
distinguished in three States as lawyer, rhetorician 
and politician; and Richard Henry Wilde of Geor- 
gia, scholar, orator and poet, Mr. Archer met with 
the fate of many of Jackson's political opponents, 
and returned to private life in 1835; but in 1841 
he was, as heretofore related, elected from Virginia 
to the United States Senate, where he served a term, 
and in which body he was chairman of the Foreign 
Relations Committee. 

James M. H. Beale, another supporter of the In- 
dependent Treasury scheme, a distinguished mem- 
ber of the prominent Virginia family of that name, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 279 

served in Congress from 1833 to 1837. Nathaniel 
H. Claiborne was for a number of years a member 
of the General Assembly in both the Senate and the 
House of Delegates, where he achieved distinction 
as a "watch-dog of the treasury," and was after- 
wards from 1825 to 1835 a representative in Con- 
gress. He possessed a literary bent, and published 
in 18 19 a volume entitled "Notes on the War in the 
South." Thomas Davenport was a member of the 
House from 1825 to 1835. James H. Gholson was 
a Congressman from 1833 to 1835, ^^ extreme 
State-Rights strict constructionist, and in 1850 a 
delegate with Gordon to the Southern Convention 
at Nashville. William McComas served two terms 
in the House, from 1833 to 1837. John Robertson, 
sprung from the Indian Princess Pocahontas, was a 
Circuit Judge and Attorney-General of Virginia, and 
a congressman from 1834 to 1839. "In Congress 
his abilities were highly estimated. By his friends 
he was called a stickler for the Constitution, so strict 
was his loyalty to it; and an illustrative story was 
invented on him by his witty and waggish friend, 
Waddy Thompson of South Carolina, that once 
being in Washington, and supposed about to die, he 
begged him as his last request not to allow him to 
be buried at public expense, for he thought it would 
be clearly unconstitutional." Judge Robertson pos- 
sessed literary talents of no insignificant order; and 
was the author, among other works, of a tragedy 
entitled, "Riego, the Spanish Martyr." William P. 
Taylor was a member of the House for one term 
from 1833 to 1835. Governor Henry A. Wise, 
the eleventh voter in the delegation for the Sub- 
Treasury amendment, has been described above in 
this chapter. 

Of the other Virginia representatives, those who 
stood by the Administration, and voted against the 
Sub-Treasury amendment, were Thomas T. Bouldin, 
Joseph W. Chinn, John H. Fulton, George Loyall, 



28o WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Edward Lucas, John Y. Mason, Charles Fenton 
Mercer, Samuel McDowell Moore, John Mercer 
Patton, Andrew Stevenson, the bpeaker, and Edgar 
C. Wilson. The most promhient of these were 
George Loyall, Gordon's personal intimate and 
friend, who remained throughout this period of poli- 
tical change and tumult an unwavering adherent of 
Jackson's; John Y. Mason, Charles Fenton Mercer, 
Samuel McDowell Moore, John Mercer Patton 
and Mr. Speaker Stevenson. 

All of these last named public men have been 
dealt with at more or less length in this volume ex- 
cept Mr. Patton, who was one of the most notable 
figures of the period in his State. He began his 
career in life as a physician, but subsequently studied 
law. Taking up the practice of his profession at 
Fredericksburg, his talents brought him rapidly to 
the front. He was a member of the House of Rep- 
resentatives from 1830 to 1838, when he resigned, 
in order to continue the practice of law, in which 
he achieved a distinguished eminence. 



CHAPTER XIX 

SPEECHES AND DEBATES IN CONGRESS THE JUDI- 
CIARY ACT THE BILL TO REMOVE WASH- 
INGTON'S BODY ADDRESS TO CON- 
STITUENTS — Tyler's letter 

Though Gordon was not a frequent speaker on 
the floor of the House, yet the reports of the de- 
bates contain his speeches upon various questions. 
In the session of 1832-33 he discussed the question 
of Nullification; and in the course of his speech he 
said that he thought that "the wisest mode of re- 
sistance to the spirit now prevailing in South Caro- 
lina was to meet it by a spirit of conciliation; to 
meet the crisis arising from the oppression of the gov- 
ernment by showing a disposition to relieve it." In 
another speech on the same subject he deprecated 
the employment by the Administration of force 
against South Carolina. 

During the session of 1833-34, in addition to 
speaking in support of the Virginia Resolutions con- 
demning the removal of the deposits, he took part 
in the debate on the bank deposit bill in connection 
with his amendment; and in that of 1834-35 he 
discussed the same bill, in the debate which involved 
again the merits of his Sub-Treasury scheme. 

One of his earliest speeches in the House was upon 
the bill to repeal the twenty-fifth section of the Ju- 
diciary Act of 1789, by which the Supreme Court 
of the United States was empowered to pass upon the 
constitutionality of State laws. The House Judi- 
ciary Committee, of which he was a member, re- 
ported on the 25th of January, 1831, in favor of 
the repeal of the twenty-fifth section on the ground 
of its unconstitutionality. The tenure and method 
of appointment of the Federal judges had always 



282 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

been objectionable to Mr, Jefferson and the State- 
Rights Democrats; and Jefferson had inveighed 
against the power conferred upon the Supreme Court 
by this section, in his first inaugural, in which he 
said: 

"I do not forget the position assumed by some 
that constitutional questions are to be decided by 
the Supreme Court, not do I deny that such ques- 
tions must be binding upon the parties to that suit, 
while they are also entitled to very high respect and 
consideration in all parallel cases by all departments 
of the government. But if the policy of the govern- 
ment upon a vital question affecting the whole people 
is to be irrevocably fixed by the decisions of the Su- 
preme Court, the moment they are made, the people 
will have ceased to be their own masters; having 
to that extent resigned the government into the hands 
of that eminent tribunal." 

There was not only a majority, but a minority re- 
port from the Judiciary Committee, the latter being 
prepared and presented by James Buchanan, after- 
wards President. Upon the coming in of these re- 
ports to the House, Gordon engaged in the discus- 
sion which ensued, and actively supported the ma- 
jority report. Phillip Doddridge, of Virginia, ex- 
pressed the opinion, in the progress of the debate, 
that the repeal of the twenty-fifth section of the 
Judiciary Act was "equivalent to a motion to dis- 
solve the Union." To this Gordon replied: 

"As to the constitutionality of the twenty-fifth 
section of the Judiciary Act, has it not been mooted 
frequently? It was neither a new question, nor an 
alarming one. Could it be new, especially to a Vir- 
ginia lawyer? Did the gentleman not know that 
the Virginia Judiciary, with Roane at its head, had 
solemnly denied the constitutionality of that section? 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 283 

Did he not also know that many of the leading men 
of the State, including John Taylor of Caroline, had 
contended that the section was unconstitutional? Did 
not Georgia, the other day, by her legislature deny 
the constitutionality of the act, and order the execu- 
tive, with all his powers, to repel its enforcement on 
her? Had not Pennsylvania too declared it uncon- 
stitutional, and resisted its execution?" 

Continuing his argument, he alluded to the famous 
case of Cohens vs. Virginia, in which the State of 
Virginia had been made a party before the Supreme 
Court of the United States, where the case was de- 
cided ten years before, and had employed distin- 
guished counsel to argue the unconstitutionality of 
the authority claimed by the Court. 

The repeal-bill, however, was defeated by a vote 
of 137 to 51; though among the minority were 
some of the leading administrationists. 

"Since the case of Cohens vs. Virginia," wrote 
John Randolph of Roanoke to his friend, Dr. Brock- 
enbrough, "I am done with the Supreme Court!" 

The twenty-fifth section of the Judiciary Act of 
1789 gave a right of appeal to the Supreme Court 
of the United States from a final judgment of a 
State court on what are now known as "federal ques- 
tions." In February, 1821, Chief Justice Marshall, 
in his opinion in Cohens vs. Virginia, upheld the con- 
stitutionality of the Twenty-fifth section of the Judi- 
ciary Act, and enunciated and illustrated for the first 
time in American jurisprudence the "supreme law" 
clause of the Constitution, with its legitimate con- 
clusions. The doctrines of federalism contained in 
this opinion, and in the bank cases of McCiilloch 
vs. Maryland, in February, 18 19, and Osborne vs. 
The Bank of the United States in 1824, had caused 
a flame of opposition to burst forth, whose fires were 
still burning. They seemed to justify Randolph's 
famous remark about seeing, when a youth, the first 



2 84 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

President take the oath to support the Constitution, 
and how two men in Virginia, George Mason and 
Patrick Henry, beheld what Washington did not see, 
"the poison under its wings!" 

The doctrines set out in these opinions were ably 
controverted by. Judge Spencer Roane, who married 
Patrick Henry's daughter, in a series of powerful 
articles in the Richmond Enquirer from May lo to 
July 13, 1 82 1, over the signature of "Algernon Sid- 
ney." 

"Organized opposition to them," says Mr. Alex- 
ander Johnston, "in several States was only checked 
by the overshadowing importance of the Missouri 
question." 

Three days after the coming in of the majority 
and minority reports on the repeal of the twenty- 
fifth section of the Judiciary Act, Gordon voted in 
favor of the consideration of a resolution offered 
by Mr. Joseph LeCompte of Kentucky, directing 
the Judiciary Committee of the House to inquire as 
to "the expediency of amending the Constitution of 
the United States, so that Judges of the Supreme 
Court and of the inferior courts shall hold their 
offices for a limited term of years." The House 
refused to consider the resolution by a vote of 116 
to 60. 

On the 13th of February, 1832, Gordon made a 
characteristic argument against the proposal then 
pending to remove the body of George Washington 
from Mount Vernon, and deposit it under the dome 
of the Capitol, where the crypt prepared for it still 
remains unoccupied, after the lapse of nearly a hun- 
dred years. 

In 1 8 16 the General Assembly of Virginia had, 
by resolutions unanimously adopted, requested in the 
name of the State that Washington's body might 
be removed from Mount Vernon, and interred near 
the State Capitol, beneath a monument to be erected 
at public expense, "to serve as a memorial to future 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 285 

ages of the love of a grateful people." The family 
of the President, however, declined the request. 

In February, 1832, it was determined by Congress 
to celebrate with great ceremony the centennial anni- 
versary of Washington's birth on the 22d of that 
month; and the resolution provided further "that 
the President be requested to superintend the deposit 
of the remains of the deceased in the place which has 
been selected for that purpose." 

At the same time, a resolution was adopted for 
placing the body of Mrs. Washington in the same 
receptacle with that of her husband; and Mr. Cal- 
houn, as Vice-President, and President of the Senate, 
and Mr. Stevenson as Speaker of the House, commu- 
nicated to Mr. John A. Washington, the grand- 
nephew of Washington and the owner of Mount 
Vernon, the application of Congress for permission 
to remove and deposit the body of Washington in 
the National Capitol, "in conformity with the reso- 
lution of Congress of the 24th of December, 1799;" 
and its request for a like disposition of the body of 
Mrs. Washington, who had, on December 31, 1799, 
consented to the execution of the last named resolu- 
tion, in a letter addressed to President Adams. A 
similar request was made of Mr. G. W. P. Custis, 
in relation to the body of Mrs. Washington. 

Mr. Custis consented; but Mr. Washington de- 
clined to accede to the removal, on the ground that 
General Washington's will, "in respect to the dis- 
position of his remains, has been recently carried 
into full effect, and they now repose in perfect tran- 
quility, surrounded by those of other endeared mem- 
bers of the family." 

Gordon's speech, made before the letter of Mr. 
Washington was written, appears as follows in Ben- 
ton's "Abridged Debates:" 

"Mr. Gordon of Virginia expressed his deep re- 
gret that on an occasion like this there should be 



286 WILLIAiM FITZHUGH GORDON 

any division of sentiment amongst those who were 
called to celebrate the birthday of the most illus- 
trious of our citizens, and he could not but think 
that there would have been a unanimity more worthy 
of the occasion, had not the select committee thought 
proper to introduce a resolution, calculated in its 
very nature to produce division. The question it 
involved had from the beginning been an exciting 
and a dividing question. General Washington had 
died in the bosom of his family, after a long life, 
glorious to himself, to his country, and to man- 
kind. He had been buried upon his own estate 
amidst his own connections, by his family and his 
neighbors; and what was now proposed to be done? 
To violate the sanctity of the grave; to take his 
bones from their honored deposit, and translate them 
to another spot. 

"Mr. Gordon said he knew it had been common, 
when our heroes had perished in foreign lands, to 
redeem their bones by a national act from the es- 
trangement into which they had been accidentally 
thrown. But he suspected that the present was the 
first instance, when it had been proposed or was 
thought of, to take their remains from the home 
of the deceased and from their native soil. And 
for what? For a monument to his memory? Had 
it not been once said of an illustrious foreigner that 
'all Florence was his monument' ? And might it 
not, with equal truth and force be asked, is not this 
city a monument to Washington? Nay, we might 
ask, was not the entire country his monument, and 
her liberty and happiness his best and noblest memo- 
rial? He must disagree with one of his colleagues 
(Mr. Mercer) in the sentiment that the removal of 
the ex-animated bones of the patriot would have any 
great efficiency towards cementing the Union of the 
States. The way to cement the Union was to imi- 
tate the virtues of Washington, to remove not his 
body, but if possible to transfer his spirit to these 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 287 

halls. Gentlemen could not suppose that the mere 
removal of his dust would infuse into men's breasts 
any higher veneration for his virtues. Let it rather 
be their part, instead of disturbing his bones, each 
to go to the altar of his country and swear to imitate 
the example of Washington. 

"He said there was another aspect of the subject, 
which he was sorry to advert to, yet as a Virginian 
he could not, for his soul, repress. Congress had 
no right to remove that dust. Washington had 
given his life to the United States, and Virginia re- 
joiced to remember it. But his bones belonged to 
her soil. Her sons honored the spot where they re- 
posed; and they thought that that was a spot, where, 
if anywhere, union and peace should ever dwell. The 
act proposed in the resolution was but a vulgar honor. 
It degraded Washington to the measure of little men, 
who needed monuments to preserve their names. 
Since the art of printing had been invented, pillars 
and monuments were but idle records. Letters were 
the best, the enduring monuments. They held the 
name and the deeds of Washington, and would hold 
them forever; and it was vain to attempt by an 
empty pageant, unchristian in its character and 
every way in bad taste, to add anything to Washing- 
ton's immortality. Such a celebration would be sure 
to dissatisfy the people of his native State. In a 
great association of republics, such as ours, the best 
and fairest competition is this : who should furnish 
citizens most devoted to their country? Who should 
be farthest from that selfishness which degrades a 
patriot? Let such be our emulation, and let the 
virtues of Washington be set before us as our model. 
If we practise these, then will our Union be im- 
mortal. But let not the House, by separating the 
remains of Washington from his own beloved State, 
and making them an object of the vulgar gaze, seek 
to gratify men who could never be moved by a con- 
sideration of his great example." 



288 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

A week later, on February 20, 1832, the General 
Assembly of Virginia unanimously adopted resolu- 
tions earnestly requesting the proprietor of Mount 
Vernon, in the name of the people of the Common- 
wealth, not to permit the body to be removed to 
Washington. 

In a later year Gordon said in a letter to his wife, 
written on an April day: 

"On Saturday I visited for the first time Mount 
Vernon, and lingered some time at the tomb of 
Washington. I felt strange emotions; and, in spite 
of me, a tear started to my eyes, as my mind glanced 
over the past and the present. It is a beautiful spot, 
worthy to contain the remains of the first man of 
America." 

Gordon's severance of party ties had brought 
upon him the hostility in his district which Jackson 
systematically fomented against those who had been 
Democrats and had antagonized him; and which 
proved conspiciously effective in the cases of Richard 
Henry Wilde and of Crockett. In May, 1834, with 
the congressional elections approaching, he wrote 
from Washington to Mrs. Gordon : 

"In regard to the movement in my district I am 
very indifferent personally. Whenever the people 
think I have abandoned their interests, or that they 
can be more ably represented, I am willing to retire." 

The movement referred to was one to elect his 
neighbor, Mr. William C. Rives, then temporarily in 
political retirement, to the House of Representa- 
tives from the district, in Gordon's place. Mr. Rives 
had a short time before resigned from the United 
States Senate, because of his unwillingness to support 
the Senate's vote of censure of the President for re- 
moving the deposits — a measure which Mr. Rives ap- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 289 

proved, but which the General Assembly of Virginia 
highly reprobated, as indicated in the resolutions pre- 
sented to the House of Representatives by Gordon. 

"I have never been in the way of Mr. Rives," 
continued the latter, in the intimacy of the last-quoted 
letter to his wife: "I have been content to see him 
wear the highest honors of the country, without 
rivalry and without envy. I have asked nothing for 
myself; I have sought no office; I have no aspirations 
beyond the wishes of my constituents." 

Mr. Rives was elected by the General Assembly, 
whose political character had changed, to his former 
position in the United States Senate; and the Jack- 
sonian Democracy of the district nominated Mr. 
James Garland as Gordon's successor. 

On the 20th of August, 1834, Gordon addressed 
the following letter to his constituents of Amherst 
County, as an account of his stewardship given to 
the whole district: 

"Amherst C. H., 20th August, 1834. 
"Gentlemen: 

"Be pleased to accept for yourselves, and for my 
fellow-citizens of Amherst, my sincerest thanks for 
the welcome you have given me to your liberal and 
patriotic county, and for the generous sentiments 
of approbation with which you have cheered my 
humible services, as your representative in the late 
session of the Congress of the United States. 

"A free constitution is the birthright of every 
Virginian; and ere we cease to defend it, and the 
sacred rights which it sustains and consecrates, we 
must forget the glories of our history, and degen- 
erate into ignoble descendants of the immortal men, 
who in the vanguard of freedom achieved our liber- 
ties, and transmitted them to us, guarded by free 
constitutions. 

"The crisis in our affairs is portentous. The ad- 
19 



290 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

ministration of the Federal Government has been 
characterized by extraordinary assertions of authority 
on the part of that Government. The President of 
the United States has greatly misapprehended the 
true history and intent of our Constitutions, both 
State and Federal. In the unexpected and strange 
proclamation, which he issued after his second elec- 
tion to the Presidency, the States were consolidated 
into a mass, their sovereignty denied, the limitations 
on Federal authority obliterated, and the rights of 
the States and the people, under express reserva- 
tions, were cancelled and denied. The degrading 
epithet of traitor to his country was affixed to the 
names of those who owned allegiance to the sov- 
ereignty, and obedience to the laws of the States 
which gave them birth. A bill known as the Force 
Bill embodied the principles of this proclamation into 
an unconstitutional law. The army, the navy, the 
militia, the treasury, were yielded by Congress to 
the President of the United States, as a substitute 
for the courts of law. Trials of our citizens in the 
Federal Courts were authorized, in derogation of 
the rightful jurisdiction of the tribunals of the State. 
The civil constitutions were buried with military* 
honors by the representatives of the people and the 
States; the President of the United States made 
the sole monarch of the concentrated powers of the 
whole system ; the glorious stars of your twenty- 
four sovereign and independent States struck from the 
brilliant flag of the Union, and the stripes of gloomy 
despotism waved in melancholy triumph over the 
darkened liberties of the Confederacy. 

"When we give power, we know not what we 
give. The appetite for it can never be satisfied. 
The last session of our Federal legislature was dis- 
tinguished by new, and to a large portion of the 
people of the Confederacy, still more alarming as- 
sertions and exertions of power. Not content with 
having repealed the Constitution by proclamation. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 291 

and obliterating the rights of the States, the Presi- 
dent claims for the Executive Department of the 
Federal Government the powers of all the depart- 
ments of that government. Sixty days before the 
meeting of the representatives of the people, and of 
the States, in Congress, he caused on his own re- 
sponsibility the revenue of the United States to be 
removed from the deposit in the United States Bank 
prescribed by law, and placed it in various State 
banks, under regulations and stipulations prescribed 
by executive authority, and not sanctioned by the 
law of the land. He adjudged that the Bank was 
unconstitutional and had violated its charter. He 
inflicted a penalty for that violation, and made a 
system of executive legislation for the revenues of 
the country. 

"We hold it as a great element of civil liberty 
that an executive chief magistrate can have no right- 
ful authority to touch, or in any manner to control, 
the revenues of the people. Liberty cannot co-exist 
with such a power. Hence our own Constitutions 
have guarded this as the vital principle of freedom, 
and prescribed the mode of raising and collecting the 
revenues by Congress, and provided that no money 
can be drawn from the treasury without an appro- 
priation by law. 

"The President, in vindicating this power, claims 
for the executive still other new and alarming powers 
and responsibilities by virtue of his power to re- 
move and appoint officers, both of which he claims 
as constitutional. He asserts the responsibility of 
every officer to him, because he is to see the laws 
faithfully executed; he interprets the discretion, 
which the law confides to others, by his supreme will, 
and acts accordingly. He abuses the power of re- 
moval, to effect that, which if done directly, would 
be a palpable and ruinous usurpation of authority, 
and stands in proud defiance of the clamors of the 
people and the resolves of the Senate. 



292 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"To the rapid waves of this whirlpool of power 
I have made a firm but ineffectual resistance. Noth- 
ing but the power and firmness and purity of the 
people can still the storm, and say to the advancing 
tide, 'Thus far shall you go, and no farther.' 

"Will not the people give the order? Will not 
Virginians — men of the land of Henry and Mason 
and Washington and Jefferson awake, arise, and 
spurn from them the base bribes with which power 
and patronage may tempt them to the surrender of 
their liberties, and the sale of their birthright of 
freedom? It must be so. We cannot be slaves 
whilst we stand on the graves of our invaders, and 
those of the immortal men who conquered our liber- 
ties, and gave us our peculiar constitutions of free- 
dom. 

"I see in the spirit and patriotism of the people 
of Amherst a sure pledge that they can never sub- 
mit to lawless power. Throwing from them the 
distinctions of party, unpledged to men, and looking 
only to their country and to liberty, they will march 
in unbroken phalanx, and I trust, with all Virginia, 
till lawless authority shall be rebuked, and the in- 
dignant resistance of freemen has driven back these 
invasions of their liberty. 

"For the kind and too personal approval which 
your friendship has made of my character and ser- 
vices, I can only assure you that my zeal in the cause 
of liberty is unabated; and that the approbation of 
my constituents is the only incentive I have ever had 
to the exertion of my very poor abilities in the cause 
of our common country. 

"I accept your invitation to a public dinner; and 
mention Friday next as the day most convenient to 
meet you. 

"With sentiments of great personal regard, I am, 
gentlemen, your faithful servant and fellow citizen, 

"W. F. Gordon. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 293 

"To Saml. M. Garland, Jos. K. Irving, W. S. Craw- 
ford, Wm. H. Garland, H. J. Rose, Addison 
Glascock, Jas. S. Pendleton, Chas. B. Claiborne, 
John Thompson, Jr., H. T, Brown, J. P. Gar- 
land and Champe Carter, Esquires." 

President Jackson had determined to dictate to 
the country his successor in the Presidential office, 
and had fixed upon Mr. Martin VanBuren, of New 
York, as the man of his choice. This was regarded as 
another act of executive usurpation by the opponents 
of the administration. Mr. Tyler, then one of the 
Senators from Virginia, suggested Mr. Tazewell as 
the strongest man with whom to beat VanBuren. He 
wrote to Gordon on the subject, as follows: 

"Gloucester, Nov. 9th, 1834. 

"My dear General: I am but a day ago from the 
North, where I left the advocates of Presidential 
power shouting their loudest huzzas at the result of 
the New York election. Will you believe me when 
I declare to you that I was half inclined to join 
them, and my object in writing to you is to tell you 
the reason. My visit to the North and East fully 
satisfied me that, if New York declared against 
VanBuren, Webster would at once be proclaimed 
candidate for the Presidency. 

"The South would not have entertained him, and 
the consequence would have been great danger to 
the Union. With political designs, the tariff would 
have been revived, and the slave-question would 
probably have been moved in relation to the Dis- 
trict. At all events we should either (I mean the 
South) have been thrown into the arm of some other 
Northern or Western man, or the contest which 
would have arisen would have exerted a feeling of 
hostility between the sections. This election avoids 
these contingencies. Webster is driven from the 
field, and the whole North is in a state of despair. 



294 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"What are the prospects from the West? Equally 
bad. The great Middle States are for VanBuren — 
rely upon that. Ohio and Kentucky are with us, 
while Indiana and Illinois will either go to Van- 
Buren or support R. M. Johnson. In one word, 
no Bank man can be elected. Every day will go 
farther and farther to establish this. 

"What then is the prospect before us? Absolutely 
one of gloom, unless a Southern man can be found 
who will unite the whole South, and thereby ensure 
to himself the support of all the anti-VanBuren 
States. I say all the opposition States — and I say 
it with full knowledge that these States everywhere 
will now rally on the strongest man. Who then can 
unite the whole South? I have brought myself 
to think that Governor Tazewell is that very man. 
Maryland waits but a nomination — perhaps she may 
move in advance with one of her counties, and at an 
early day. North Carolina and South Carolina will 
rally to him I have no doubt; Georgia will not 
forget the steady and able advocate of her rights, 
when she most required an advocate; while Ala- 
bama and Mississippi will recollect that he is the 
first public man who ever proposed a reduction in 
the public lands; while Virginia, if her people are 
wise, will and ought to unite upon him as affording 
the means of bringing together the old State-Rights 
party, which the proclamation separated. 

"What say you, my dear sir, to these specula- 
tions? I am sanguine a decided move is all that is 
required. The North and East are panic-struck, 
and all men avow their readiness to unite on any 
'gentleman.' I mentioned Tazewell to a Pennsyl- 
vanian, Kentuckian, and Marylander. They 
snatched at the suggestion. I should not be surprised 
if he is named in some public journal of each of these 
States forthwith. No matter where his name may 
be first brought out, it will spread like lightning — 
that is my opinion. Is there then cause for despon- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 295 

dency? What if recent events shall ultimate as I 
predict — shall I not be right in saying that I felt 
disposed to join in the huzzas? 

"I asked myself to whom shall I address my no- 
tions — and I sat down to address you. I felt that 
you would even indulge me in a delusion, if you 
should so consider it, so full of pleasing anticipa- 
tions for the country and the liberty of the human 
race, I know I need not ask you to meditate on 
these things, but I will request you to show this 
to Gilmer, should it fall in your way; and if you 
think it well, cause to be thrown out some sugges- 
tions in the Charlottesville paper. When we meet 
in Washington, we will talk more at large, 
"Yours most truly, 

"J. Tyler. 
"General Gordon.'' 

On the 8th of December, of the same year, Gor- 
don wrote from Washington to his wife that Mr. 
Ritchie's loss of his election as public printer "has 
produced much sensation here in both parties;" and 
rejoiced that "Mr. Leigh's election is now consid- 
ered certain" — a prognostication that found its ful- 
fillment a short time thereafter in the choice of Mr. 
Benjamin Watkins Leigh to the United States Sen- 
ate by the General Assembly of Virginia as succes- 
sor to Mr, Rives. 

Gordon's own defeat for Congress by Mr, Gar- 
land in the congressional election of 1834 had not 
served to sour his kindly and generous spirit. To 
his wife, who was then residing in the old Maury 
house at Edgeworth, which was burned in the Feb- 
ruary following, he said in the same letter: "I am 
happy to hear that Mr. Rives' family are mingling 
in the society of the neighborhood without reserve. 
I should be extremely mortified if the demon of 
party should expel the social virtues from our neigh- 
borhood. I hope you will visit Mrs. Rives, and offer 



296 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

her the hosMtality of our humble dwelling, I do 
not wish to embark our ladles on the stormy sea 
of politics. Long may their smiles and approbation 
be the purest rewards of patriotism, whilst they 
separate themselves from those angry feelings, which 
men contending for empire always feel," 



CHAPTER XX 

DEFEATED FOR CONGRESS CALHOUn's LETTER ON 

Jackson's dictation of a successor — 

barnwell on the whigs tyler and 

the expunging resolution. 

The result of the election in Virginia was a triumph 
for the Jacksonian Democracy. Gordon, defeated 
by a "conservative" Democrat, ended his six years' 
career as a member of the House of Representatives 
with the close of the second session of the 23d Con- 
gress, which adjourned on the 3d of March, 1835. 
Jackson, who had determined on VanBuren as his 
political heir, also determined that he should be 
nominated by a national convention. The conven- 
tion rt^et in Baltimore in May, 1835, ^"^ named 
VanBuren, and Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky as 
candidates for President and Vice-President, and ad- 
journed without a formal platform, but as standing 
on Jackson's "policies." Mr. Calhoun viewed the 
situation with great anxiety. In the same month in 
which the Jacksonian Democracy met in convention in 
Baltimore, Calhoun wrote to Gordon as follows : 

"Fort Hill, 22d May, 1835. 
"My Dear Sir: 

"The results of your election have cast a deep and 
universal gloom over the patriotic and reflecting in 
this quarter. Who could have thought it, that the 
oldest and the proudest of the slave-holding States, 
the most steadfast heretofore in her political prin- 
ciples, and to which all the South looked up as to a 
leader in their political struggles, would in so short 
a time become a colony of New York, to be ruled by 
the lowest and basest cabal that ever aspired to do- 
minion? The sympton is awful. In Virginia the 



298 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

doom of the slave-holding States is fixed, unless 
something is done promptly to arrest the current of 
events. We shall be the most degraded portion of 
the civilized world. Our condition will be worse 
than our slaves, who will have the sympathy and 
kindness of our masters of Albany, while we shall 
be the object of their scorn and hatred, unless pro- 
tected by their contempt. Something must be done; 
but what that something should be is a great and 
serious question. 

"I see that in order to save yourselves from the 
grasp of the regency, you are moving on White. You 
know my opinion on that point. The very resort to 
it is among the strongest symptons of our decay. I 
do not condemn the move. It may be necessary in 
the desperate state into which you are thrown; but 
I doubt the success of the move, and if it should 
prove successful, I doubt the consequences. Much 
however, will depend on the ground on which the 
canvass is placed, both as to the success of the move, 
and its consequences, whether successful or not; and 
it is to that point I wish to call your attention, as one, 
if judiciously taken, which may blend it with great 
and important consequences. 

"I do not know how others may regard it, but as 
to myself, I would view the success of the Execu- 
tive's nominee to be a case of open and palpable 
usurpation of the supreme executive power; as much 
so as if it had been effected by the army and navy. 
I see no practical difference whether the Executive 
employs them, or the more effectual and dangerous 
means — the patronage of the Government — to give 
us a ruler, unless indeed it be more base and fatal 
to submit to the latter than the former. I for one, 
at least, am prepared to take this high and manly 
ground in advance, and to announce openly and 
boldly that the attempt of the Executive to nomi- 
note his successor would, if successful, constitute a 
case of manifest usurpation of the supreme execu- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 299 

tive power, and of plain subornation of our institu- 
tions and liberty, — be in fact the establishment of an 
odious and corrupt despotism on the ruins of our Re- 
publican institutions, and that obedience to such au- 
thority would be a matter of discretion and not of 
constitutional obligation. Let this ground be as- 
sumed openly and boldly, accompanied by a deter- 
mined assault on the traitorous assembly of office- 
holders and office-seekers at Baltimore, and a new 
and far more interesting and hopeful character will 
be given to the canvass — one which would attract the 
affection of all who are in favor of liberty and op- 
posed to usurpation and slavery, and which will yield 
fruits whether you are victors or not. 

"Permit me to add, in reference to yourself, that 
you had no friend who took more interest personally 
in your success, or felt more mortified in your defeat. 
"Yours sincerely and truly, 

"J. C. Calhoun. 
"Hon. Wm. F. Gordon." 

The combination of strict-construction Republi- 
cans and National Republicans who were opposed to 
Jackson, the latter of whom were now generally 
known as Whigs, put forward in Virginia "The 
People's Republican Whig Ticket," with Hugh L. 
White of Tennessee, as their nominee for President 
and John Tyler of Virginia for Vice-President. Gor- 
don was one of the electors on this ticket; and other 
Virginians of prominence on it were Mark Alexan- 
der, Chapman Johnson, John L. Marye, John Jan- 
ney, Charles James Faulkner and Briscoe G. Bald- 
win. 

Judge White was in the Senate from Ten- 
nessee, in which body he had been Jackson's succes- 
sor. Gordon had known him personally and pleas- 
antly as a member of his mess, when he and the 
others who belonged to it, including Benton, were 
"all Jackson men." White had supported Jackson 



300 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

in his war on the Bank; but in February, 1835, he 
had attacked the administration in a speech in favor 
of restricting executive patronage. He had followed 
this up by another speech in opposition to Benton's 
resolution to "expunge" the resolutions of censure, 
that had been passed by the Senate, condemning Jack- 
son for removing the deposits; and was now so far 
advanced into the camp of Jackson's opponents as 
to attract their attention to him as an available can- 
didate with which to oppose the candidate of the 
President. 

But the Republican-Whig combination lacked 
unity; and while Republicans and Whigs in the 
South supported White, the Whigs of the North 
voted for General William Henry Harrison, 
who was not inoculated with the virus of State- 
Rights. White carried Tennessee and Georgia, re- 
ceiving twenty-six votes in the electoral college. Van- 
Buren had one hundred and seventy, and was elected. 
Harrison's vote was seventy-three; while Webster 
got fourteen, and Willie P. Mangum of North Caro- 
lina, eleven. "The double-shotted ticket killed us," 
wrote Tyler to Henry A. Wise in January, 1837, al- 
luding to the division of the coalition, in the election, 
between Harrison in the North and White in the 
South. 

Everywhere the feeling of discord was rankling, 
without regard to North or South. The State-Rights 
men had little or nothing in common with the Na- 
tional Republicans, except hostility to Jackson. 
Neither element trusted or liked the other. Mr. 
Robert W. Barnwell, of South Carolina, illustrated 
this feeling of distrust and discord in a letter written 
some months earlier to Gordon : 

"Beaufort, S. C, 6th August, 1834. 
"My Dear Gordon: 

"I believe that you know enough of my disinclina- 
tion for writing to be somewhat surprised at receiv- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 301 

ing this letter from me. Whilst I say truly that I 
have felt much interest in your political course, and 
would have been much pleased at a renewal of our 
intercourse, yet I must acknowledge that it required 
some additional motive to overcome my repugnance 
to letter-writing. A young gentleman of Beaufort 
requested me to obtain some information with respect 
to your University at Charlottesville, and I knew no 
one who was more competent to afford us this in- 
formation than yourself. Will you be so kind as to 
forward to me some enumeration of the studies re- 
quired for admission, and the studies pursued by the 
different classes, together with such remarks as may 
facilitate the object of this application? 

"It is not long since we were together in Wash- 
ington, comparing and contrasting my sombre and 
your bright prognostications with respect to the des- 
tinies of the Republic. And yet so rapidly have 
events of the deepest import to the freedom of the 
people hurried to their consummation, that I can 
scarcely believe that our Government has only had 
one additional year of maturity to ripen its powers. 
Although no longer feeling the madness of the strife, 
strong associations with numerous and valued friends 
have given a spur to the patriotic anxiety with which 
I have watched passing events. I know not whether 
you will not suspect me of being so deeply imbued 
with nullification as to feel an insane terror of legis- 
lative usurpation; but so it is, that even the furious 
career of the old vandal, who is called President, 
affects me with less gloomy anticipations of our fu- 
ture security in the enjoyment of institutions truly 
free than the base and shameless love of spoil indi- 
cated in both houses at the close of the session. 

"I cannot say that my past experience permitted 
me very sanguinely to anticipate forbearance among 
our Northern and Western legislators; yet the im- 
mediate danger of our civil rights, and the united 
stand made for them by South and North ought in 



302 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

reason to have mitigated the ravenousness of the 
Whigs. How very far this was from being the case, 
the immense amount of your appropriations will 
show. The position of the State-Rights party is ex- 
tremely dangerous, whilst it is compelled to act with 
those who are the most formidable and deadly ene- 
mies of its principles. Whilst Webster rules the 
National Republicans, they never will permit any 
measure to be adopted which will strengthen the 
State-Rights party. They will give us warm pro- 
fessions, but their enmity neither slumbers nor sleeps. 
Yet aware as I am of the danger of your position, 
I cannot devise any more safe or more efficient line 
of policy than that which you have pursued. It is 
truly melancholy to be obliged to refer the greater 
part of our present dangers to the collisions of Van- 
Buren and Calhoun. Of the blame I acquit Cal- 
houn, for his talents (which rendered him dangerous 
to the other aspirants) he could not and ought not 
to have suppressed. Yet whilst in the commencement 
of the contest I believe him to have been far more 
sinned against than sinning, I will not say that his 
subsequent course has been uninfluenced by resent- 
ment or ambition. Yet I cannot but find excuses for 
his faults in his fate, which has thrust him upon a 
people who have neither virtue nor intelligence suffi- 
cient to appreciate his greatness. 

"I congratulate you personally that you are now 
thrown openly and entirely in opposition to the 
schemes of that wicked cabal, which rules the land 
* * * If you see Gilmer, make my kind remem- 
brances to him. Believe me, 

"Very sincerely your friend, 

"R. W. Barnwell. 
"Gen. Wm. F. Gordon." 

Barnwell deserves more than a casual mention in 
these pages. He was younger than Gordon by some 
ten or .welve years; but their associations during 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 303 

the former's two terms in Congress from 1829 to 
1833 had thrown them into a close personal com- 
panionship, which resulted in a mutual regard and 
admiration. If the younger man had no such halo of 
earlier romance adorning his story, as did Gordon's 
latest Presidential candidate. Judge White, who at 
seventeen years of age was said to have ended the 
Cherokee war, when under the command of Gen- 
eral Sevier he won the battle of Etowah, by shooting 
the Cherokee Chief, King Fisher; yet Barnwell was 
even at this time a prominent man in his State, and 
destined later to have a career that was as patriotic 
as it was highly distinguished. After leaving Con- 
gress he occupied for six years the dignified position 
of president of the College of South Carolina. Re- 
tiring on account of his health, he was appointed to 
the United States Senate, and served during the ses- 
sion of i860. He represented South Carolina in the 
convention of seceding States, which met at Mont- 
gomery, Alabama, early in 1861 ; and it was by his 
casting vote that Jefferson Davis was elected Presi- 
dent of the Confederate States. Mr. Barnwell 
served his State and country later as a Senator in the 
Confederate Congress at Richmond; and died in 
Columbia, South Carolina, on November 25, 1882, 
in his eighty-second year, admired, honored, and es- 
teemed by all who knew him. 

The election of VanBuren, and his adoption of 
Gordon's plan of an Independent Treasury as the 
leading measure of his administration, brought about 
the practical destruction of the coalition between the 
State-Rights Republicans, or Democrats, and the Na- 
tional Republicans, or Whigs. In 1837 Mr. Cal- 
houn returned to an active affiliation and co-opera- 
tion with the Democratic party on the specie plat- 
form of the Independent Treasury; and Gordon and 
a host of Virginia State-Rights Democrats went with 
him. In 1840 Gordon supported with voice and vote 
the nomination of VanBuren for a second term, while 



304 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the Whigs now centered their attacks upon his finan- 
cial policy and the Sub-Treasui*y scheme. When the 
electoral votes were counted in February, 1841, Wil- 
liam Llenry Harrison, the Whig candidate, had a 
great majority over his competitor, VanBuren; and 
Mr. Tyler, who was a State-Rights man, but had re- 
mained with the Whigs, was elected on the ticket 
with General Harrison, and succeeeded him as Presi- 
dent upon his death a month after his inauguration. 

In the mean time, early in 1836, the General As- 
sembly of Virginia passed resolutions instructing the 
Senators from that State to vote for Benton's ex- 
punging resolution. These Senators were Benjamin 
Watkins Leigh and Mr. Tyler. Leigh refused to 
be instiiicted, and held on to his seat. He wrote to 
Tyler : 

"I will not be instructed out of my seat, I. will 
not obey instructions which shall require me to vote 
for a gross violation of the Constitution. If I shall 
be instructed to vote for expunging or rescinding the 
resolution of the Senate disapproving General Jack- 
son's conduct in removing the public deposits from 
the Bank, I shall obey the instruction when I shall 
be prepared to write myself fool, knave and slave, 
and not before, — when I shall be prepared to obey 
an instruction to vote for the abolition of the Senate, 
and with it of the State sovereignties, — when I shall 
be willing to fix the monarchical doctrines of the pro- 
test upon this nation, and then, in effect to subvert 
the Republic. I know very well that I cannot do my 
duty to my country without a sacrifice of myself as 
a public man in my own State; for as the advocate 
of the right of instruction in 18 12, I am peculiarly 
situated; but I am prepared to make the sacrifice 
without a sigh or a murmur." 

Mr, Tyler consulted the judgment of his friends 
and political supporters of influence in the State. 
Governor Barbour and others advised against resig- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 305 

nation; while John Hampden Pleasants, the able and 
powerful editor of the Richmond Whig, favored 
his resignation. Gordon took the view of James Bar- 
bour and Benjamin Watkins Leigh, against resig- 
nation, and wrote Mr. Tyler the following letter : 

"Albemarle, January 15th, 1836. 
"My Dear Tyler: 

"I received your welcome letter a few days ago. 
I have given to it all the consideration I am capable 
of. From your position on the stage of affairs, you 
have a more commanding view than I can possibly 
have, and my opinions may, therefore, be worth 
little; but as you request them, they shall be given 
in all sincerity. I am decidedly of opinion that you 
ought not to resign. That would be to do precisely 
what your adversaries desire you should do. I can- 
not tell in what form the resolutions of the legisla- 
ture may pass. You say you would have no difficulty 
to obey an instruction to rescind the resolution of 
the Senate. Is that proposed by Watkins' resolu- 
tion more than a proposition to rescind, supremely 
ridiculous as it is? The proposition to draw black 
lines around the original resolution, and to write on 
it that it is expunged, is a fetch to get around the 
constitutional objection to an obliteration of the Jour- 
nal of the Senate, and a new interpretation to the 
word 'expunge.' 

"Were I in your place, I should 'agnize a willing 
and prompt alacrity', and obey literally the instruc- 
tions given. Obedience, however, is not what your 
masters at Richmond desire; they want your place, 
and Leigh's. Obedience will disappoint them woe- 
fully. As to the fate of that resolution of the Senate, 
it is now of no moment. It has already had its effect 
for good or evil; it never can be obliterated; the 
very effort to effect that would give it a more con- 
spicuous place in history, and the posterity of this 



20 



3o6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

degenerate and corrupt generation will have to de- 
cide whether you, who denied, or those who asserted, 
a rightful control over the public revenue for the 
Chief Executive officer, were the friends of liberty. 
You suggest the propriety of resigning, and appeal- 
ing to the people. Discard the idea. Power can 
only be controlled by power. In your place you have 
power. You have a point from which you can de- 
fend yourself. If you resign, you sink into the great 
mass of citizens, without a shield to ward off the 
attacks of the press and the office power of the Ad- 
ministration. 

"Your case will be unlike Rives'; he resigned with 
the Administration at his back — with all their power, 
money and presses; you would be a warrior going 
into battle without a sword or shield. The question 
of instructions has been so bandied in Virginia — has 
been so universally acknowledged — that it is very 
difficult to make the great body of the people under- 
stand its rightful from its false exercise by the legis- 
lature. I am decidedly of opinion that. If you can, 
without violating your own consciousness of duty to 
your country and yourself, obey the instructions of 
the legislature to the letter, It will have the happiest 
effect both for you and those with whom you act, on 
the people of Virginia. 

"The time must come, and shortly, when the people 
of Virginia at least will learn that the control of the 
revenue of the country Is not an executive function. 
The discussion of this subject at your present session 
will be received with more calmness than at the last. 
Let the charter of the United States Bank expire, and 
present the naked question to the community, and 
they must decide rightly. Mr. Calhoun's bill to 
regulate the deposits will be a fine opportunity, not 
only to relieve the Secretary of the Treasury from 
the high and painful responsibility which so much 
discretionary power has Imposed, but of damning 
the Administration which imposed it on him. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 307 

"I expect great results from this session, from your 
body. Mr. Clay and Mr. Calhoun will both wield 
a power infinitely greater than when they were con- 
sidered candidates of the Presidency. I am decidedly 
of opinion that VanBuren cannot get Virginia against 
White. I was at Louisa Court the other day, and 
was present at a meeting to send delegates to Rich- 
mond. Many of General Jackson's strong friends 
there are opposed to Van. What effect their drop- 
ping Colonel Johnson may have I know not. If 
Johnson himself has any of the hero remaining, I 
think he and his friends must look with indignation 
on the attempt to use him for the promotion of Van, 
and to his own defeat. My own opinion is that if 
ever we can get General Jackson's shield from him, 
he can be foiled. You must show up the corruption 
of the Administration. Do not give too much im- 
portance to the French question. It is a ruse of the 
Administration to call off the people from attending 
to their domestic demerits. There can be no war, 
and if there is, it will seal the fate of the party. But 
do not make a noise about it, to draw off the atten- 
tion of the country from the misrule under which 
we are suffering. 

"In regard to your own affair, I wish you all suc- 
cess. But I fear that it will be too good for us, even 
to get the second office of the government for a man 
of your politics. I am very sure, however, that you 
will be sustained by your own State, or rather by the 
party in Virginia, which must now stand for what 
Virginia once was. Make it a majority, and you and 
the cause are triumphant. But I candidly confess 
I have not much concern who is President, in com- 
parison with the reassertion of those Republican 
principles, which were once the glory, and are now 
the disgrace by their abandonment, of Virginia. We 
have a very able paper at Charlottesville. The ed- 
itor, Moseley, is a man of first-rate talent. It is 



3o8 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

doing good in this part of Virginia. Give him a 
hand. 

"Present me respectfully to any of my old friends 
who remember me, — to Robertson and Mr. Calhoun 
especially. Accept my congratulations on the mar- 
riage of your daughter. Present me most kindly to 
General Tipton and Mrs. McDaniel's family; and 
believe me, 

"Your friend, 

Wm. F. Gordon." 

Mr. Tyler proved himself a wiser politician than 
either Mr. Leigh or Gordon. He declined Leigh's 
example and Gordon's advice, and resigned. He 
lived to become President of the United States, while 
Mr. Leigh's public career ended with his term in the 
Senate. 

When Calhoun, Tazewell, Gordon and a number 
of other leading State-Rights Republicans returned 
to the Democratic party in 1837, on the adoption of 
the Independent Treasury measure by VanBuren, 
they did not take with them from the Whig alliance 
all of the State-Rights men. Calhoun himself be- 
wailed in a letter written in July, 1840, the existence 
of these conditions. "If united," said he, "victory 
(for State-Rights) would be certain, and safety 
placed beyond contingency." 

The most representative State-Rights man in Vir- 
ginia, who remained with the Whig party, was Mr. 
Tyler. 



CHAPTER XXI 

SLAVERY ON ITS DOMESTIC SIDE NAT's INSURREC- 
TION THE TRAGEDY AT GERMANNA. 

From 1835, when Gordon's last term In Con- 
gress ended, down to the date of his death, the slav- 
ery question in its political aspect occupied a large 
space upon the stage of national affairs. At home, 
in Virginia, in 1831, it had shaken society to its 
foundations, and created a general alarm through- 
out the l5outh, by a tragic happening in one of the 
eastern counties of the State that culminated in 
scenes of bloodshed and horror. This occurrence, 
which is known as "Nat's Insurrection," or "The 
Southampton Insurrection," was the massacre in 
August, 1 83 1, of fifty-five white men, women and 
children in Southampton County by a body of some 
sixty or seventy slaves, under the leadership of a 
negro slave, named Nat Turner. The following 
account of this ghastly event was locally published 
a short time after its occurrence : 

"The leader of this insurrection and massacre 
was a slave by the name of Nat Turner, about thir- 
ty-one years of age, born the slave of Mr. Benjamin 
Turner of Southampton County. From a child Nat 
appears to have been the victim of superstition and 
fanaticism. He stimulated his comrades to join him 
in the massacre, by declaring to them that he had 
been commissioned by Jesus Christ, and that he was 
acting under inspired direction in what he was going 
to accomplish. 

"In the confession which he voluntarily made to 
Mr. Grey, while in prison, he says : 'That in his 
childhood a circumstance occurred which made an 
indelible impression on his mind, and laid the ground 



3IO WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

work of the enthusiasm which terminated so fatally 
to many. Being at play with other children, when 
three or four years old, I told them something, 
which my mother overhearing, said it happened be- 
fore I was born. I stuck to my story, however, 
and related some things which went, in her opinion, 
to confirm it; others being called on were greatly 
astonished, knowing these things had happened, 
and caused them to say in my hearing, I surely 
would be a prophet, as the Lord had showed me 
things which happened before my birth. His 
parents strengthened him in this belief, and said in 
his presence that he was intended for some great 
purpose, which they had always thought from cer- 
tain marks on his head and breast.' Nat, as he grew 
up, was fully persuaded he was destined to accom- 
plish some great purpose; his powers of mind ap- 
peared much superior to his fellow-slaves; they 
looked up to him as a person guided by divine in- 
spiration; which belief he ever inculcated by his aus- 
terity of life and manners. 

"After a variety of revelations from the spiritual 
world, Nat says, in his confession, that 'On the 12th 
of May, 1828, I heard a loud noise in the heavens, 
and the spirit instantly appeared to me, and said 
the serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down 
the yoke he had borne for the sins of men; and that 
I should take it on and fight against the serpent, for 
the time was fast approaching when the first should 
be last and the last should be first — and by signs 
in the heavens that it would make known to me when 
I should commence the great work — and until the 
first sign appeared, I should conceal it from the 
knowledge of men. And on the appearance of the 
sign (the eclipse of the sun last February, 1831) 
I should arise and prepare myself, and slay my 
enemies with their own weapons. And immediately 
on the sign appearing in the heavens, the seal was 
removed from my lips, and I communicated the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 311 

great work laid out for me to do to four, in whom 
I had the greatest confidence, (Henry, Hark, Nel- 
son and Sam). It was intended by us to have begun 
the work of death on the 4th of July last. Many 
were the plans formed and rejected by us; and it 
affected my mind to such a degree, that I fell sick, 
and the time passed without our coming to any de- 
termination how to commence — still forming new 
schemes and rejecting them, when the sign appeared 
again, which determined me not to wait longer.' 

"Nat commenced the massacre by the murder of 
his master and family. He says : 'Since the com- 
mencement of 1830, I had been living with Mr. 
Joseph Travis, who was to me a kind master, and 
placed the greatest confidence in me. In fact, I had 
no cause to complain of his treatment to me. On 
Saturday evening, the 20th of August, it was agreed 
between Henry, Hark, and myself, to prepare a 
dinner the next day for the men we expected, and 
then to concert a plan, as we had not yet determined 
on any. Hark, on the following morning, brought 
a pig, and Henry, brandy; and being joined by 
Sam, Nelson, Will and Jack, they prepared in the 
woods a dinner, where, about three o'clock, I joined 
them. I saluted them on coming up, and asked 
Will how came he there; he answered his life was 
worth no more than others, and his liberty as dear 
to him. I asked him if he thought to obtain it? He 
said he would, or lose his life. This was enough 
to put him in full confidence. Jack, I knew, was 
only a tool in the hands of Hark. It was quickly 
agreed we should commence at home, (Mr. J. 
Travis'), on that night; and until we had armed and 
equipped ourselves, and gathered suflicient force, 
neither age nor sex was to be spared, (which was 
invariably adhered to). We remained at the feast 
until about two hours in the night, when we went 
to the house and found Austin; they all went to 
the cider-press and drank, except myself. On re- 



312 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

turning to the house, Hark went to the door with 
an axe for the purpose of breaking it open, as he 
knew we were strong enough to murder the family, 
if they were awakened by the noise; but reflecting 
that it might create an alarm in the neighborhood, 
we determined to enter the house secretly, and mur- 
der them while sleeping. Hark got a ladder and 
set it against the chimney, on which I ascended, and 
hoisting a window, entered and came down stairs 
unbarred the door, and removed the guns from their 
places. It was then observed that I must spill the 
first blood. On which, armed with a hatchet, and 
accompanied by Will, I entered my master's cham- 
ber; it being dark, I could not give a death-blow; 
the hatchet glanced from his head, he sprang from 
the bed and called his wife; it was his last word. 
Will laid him dead with a blow of his axe, and Mrs. 
Travis shared the same fate as she lay in bed. The 
murder of this family, five in number, was the work 
of a moment, not one of them awoke; there was a 
little infant sleeping in a cradle, that was forgotten 
until we had left the house, and gone some distance, 
when Henry and Will returned and killed it; we 
got here four guns that would shoot, and several old 
muskets, with a pound or two of powder. We re- 
mained some time at the barn, where we paraded; 
I formed them in a line as soldiers, and after carry- 
ing them through all the manoeuvres I was master 
of, marched them off to Mr. Salathiel Francis', about 
six hundred yards distant.' 

"They proceeded in this manner from house to 
house, murdering all the whites they could find, 
their force augmenting as they proceeded, till they 
amounted to fifty or sixty in number, all mounted, 
armed with guns, axes, swords and clubs. They 
then started for Jerusalem, and proceeded a few 
miles, when they were met by a party of white men, 
who fired upon them and forced them to retreat. 
'On my way back' (says Nat), 'I called at Mrs. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 313 

Thomas', Mrs. Spencer's, and several other places; 
the white families having fled, we found no more 
victims to gratify our thirst for blood. We stopped 
at Major Ridley's quarter for the night; and being 
joined by four of his men, with the recruits made 
since my defeat, we mustered now about forty strong. 
" 'After placing out sentinels, I lay down to sleep, 
but was quickly roused by a great racket; starting 
up, I found some mounted, and others In great con- 
fusion. One of the sentinels having given the alarm 
that we were about to be attacked, I ordered some 
to ride round and reconnoitre; and on their return 
the others being more alarmed, not knowing who 
they were, fled in different ways, so that I was re- 
duced to about twenty again; with this I deter- 
mined to attempt to recruit, and proceeded on to 
rally in the neighborhood I had left. Dr. Blunt's 
was the nearest house, which we reached just before 
day; on riding up the yard. Hark fired a gun. We 
expected Dr. Blunt and his family were at Major 
Ridley's, as I knew there was a company of men 
there; the gun was fired to ascertain If any of the 
family was at home; we were immediately fired 
upon and retreated, leaving several of my men. I 
do not know what became of them, as I never saw 
them afterwards. Pursuing our course back, and 
coming In sight of Capt. Harris', where we had 
been the day before, we discovered a party of white 
men at the house, on which all deserted me but two 
(Jacob and Nat). We concealed ourselves in the 
woods till near night, when I sent them in search 
of Henry, Sam, Nelson and Hark; and directed 
them to rally all they could, at the place we had 
our dinner the Sunday before, where they would 
find me; and I accordingly returned there as soon 
as it was dark, and remained until Wednesday even- 
ing, when, discovering white men riding around the 
place as though they were looking for some one, 
and none of my men joining me, 1 concluded Jacob 



314 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

and Nat had been taken, and compelled to betray 
me. On this I gave up all hope for the present, and 
on Thursday night, after having supplied myself 
with provisions from Mr. Travis', I scratched a hole 
under a pile of fence-rails in a field, where I concealed 
myself for six weeks, never leaving my hiding-place 
but for a few minutes in the dead of the night to 
get water, which was very near; thinking by this 
time I could venture out, I began to go about in the 
night and eavesdrop the houses in the neighborhood; 
pursuing this course for about a fortnight, and gath- 
ering little or no intelligence, afraid of speaking to 
any human being, and returning every morning to 
my cave before the dawn of day. I know not how 
long I might have led this life, if an accident had not 
betrayed me. A dog in the neighborhood, passing 
by my hiding-place one night while I was out, was 
attracted by some meat I had in my cave, and 
crawled in and stole it, and was coming out just as 
I returned. A few nights after, two negroes hav- 
ing started to go hunting with the same dog, and 
passed that way, the dog came again to the place; 
and having just gone out to walk about, discovered 
me and barked, on which thinking myself discovered, 
I spoke to them to beg concealment. On making 
myself known they fled from me. Knowing then 
they would betray me, I immediately left my hid- 
ing-place, and was pursued almost incessantly, until 
I was taken a fortnight afterwards, by Mr. Benja- 
min Phipps, in a little hole I had dug out with my 
sword, for the purpose of concealment, under the 
top of a fallen tree. On Mr. Phillips discovering 
the place of my concealment, he cocked his gun and 
aimed at me. I requested him not to shoot, and I 
would give up, upon which he demanded my sword, 
I delivered it to him and he brought me to prison.' 

"Nat was executed according to his sentence, at 
Jeiiisalem," (the county-seat of Southampton), 
"November ii, 1831. The following is a list of the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 315 

persons murdered in the insurrection, on the 21st 
and 22nd of August, 1831 : 

"Joseph Travis and wife, and three children, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Turner, Hartwell Prebles, Sarah New- 
some, Mrs. P. Reese and son William, Trajan Doyle, 
Henry Bryant and wife and child, and wife's 
mother; Mrs. Catherine Whitehead, son Richard, 
four daughters and grandchild; Salathiel Francis, 
Nathaniel Francis' overseer and two children, John 
T. Barroe, George Vaughn, Mrs. Levi Waller and 
ten children, William Williams, wife and two boys; 
Mrs. Caswell Worrel and child, Mrs. Rebecca 
Vaughn, Ann Elizabeth Vaughn and son Arthur, 
Mrs. John K. Williams and three children, and Ed- 
Vv^ard Drury — amounting to fifty-five." 

The effect of this terrible massacre upon the public 
mind was to do away with the tendencies thereto- 
fore existing and steadily growing in Virginia to- 
wards the abolition of slavery in the Commonwealth. 

As far back as October 5, 1778, the Virginia 
General Assembly had prohibited the importation 
of slaves into the State by sea or land, under a pen- 
alty of one thousand dollars fine for each one brought 
in, and by the emancipation of the slave himself; 
while the first constitution of the State, which was 
unanimously adopted on the 29th June, 1776, con- 
tained in its preamble the recitation that the King 
of Great Britain had prompted "our negroes to rise 
in arms among us, those very negroes, whom by an 
Inhuman use of his prerogative he had refused us 
permission to exclude by law." Many men in Vir- 
ginia of distinction and Influence favored the eman- 
cipation of the slaves, and there were numerous In- 
stances of their manumission by testamentary pro- 
vision. The proposition for abolition, prior to the 
time when the New England and Quaker conscience 
flung It as a burning brand into the political arena, 
had been one of grave consideration with many of 



3i6 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the statesmen of the Commonwealth; and not In- 
frequently the matter had been one of counsel and 
discussion In Its legislative bodies. But the difficul- 
ties of the situation were aggravated by the rapid 
growth of the slave population through natural 
causes; and by a threatened Interference with the 
State's local matters by outsiders, that was now be- 
ginning to assume definite and determined shape. 

Nat's Insurrection produced a profound and far- 
extending belief that It had been stimulated, If not 
directly caused, by the Introduction and circulation 
among the slaves, through secret agents, of the abo- 
lition doctrines advocated In New England. The 
resolutions In favor of emancipation ceased to be 
Introduced In the General Assembly; and the feel- 
ing against slavery, that had begun to grow so strong 
in Virginia, received a violent check. The first legis- 
lature which met after the bloody massacre in 
Southampton, Instead of further considering plans 
of emancipation, enacted the most stringent laws for 
the government and control of the slave population. 
It forbade their meetings, it proscribed their instruc- 
tion, and it imposed on the slaves themselves grave 
penalties for seditious and rebellious words. Much 
of this legislation, wrought out of the elemental pas- 
sions that were aroused by Nat Turner's sanguinary 
performance, were subsequently repealed or modi- 
fied; but there can be little doubt that the result 
of this murderous occurrence was to fix more firmly 
than ever before the bonds of the Virginia slave, 
until the day of his final disenthralment amid the 
convulsions and cataclysms of a relentless and bloody 
war. 

How grave were the difficulties which were 
pressed upon the people of the slave-holding States, 
and especially of Virginia, where the desire to get 
rid of the institution, if some safe way might be 
found, had from the earliest days of the Common- 
wealth prevailed with many, was illustrated not only 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 317 

by the savage onslaughts of the Northern abolition- 
ists, but by more than one tragic incident in the do- 
mestic lives of the local slave-owners. One of these 
incidents happened in Gordon's immediate family 
circle, about six years prior to his death. 

His brother, Armistead, a bachelor, and his two 
maiden sisters, Lucy and Elizabeth, had continued 
to reside, after the death of their parents, at the 
family homestead at Germanna. Lucy died first, 
leaving the other two to survive her in the posses- 
sion of the property and the occupancy of the resi- 
dence. In 1852 it became known among the negro 
slaves on the Germanna plantation that Elizabeth 
Gordon had made a will, manumitting her slaves, 
of whom she owned a number, their freedom to en- 
sue after the expiration of the life-estate of her 
brother, Armistead, to whom she bequeathed them 
while he survived; and that the will, in accordance 
with the provision of the law of Virginia which re- 
quired that manumitted slaves should be removed 
out of the State within a year, further provided that 
these negroes, when their freedom attached, should 
be sent to Liberia, for which purpose a sum of 
money was provided by the testatrix. The know- 
ledge of the contents of Miss Gordon's will was 
communicated to the other slaves on the place by 
a negro servant-girl, who was a housemaid for her 
mistress, and who had been taught to read and write 
by her. This girl saw her mistress' will in a bureau- 
drawer where it had been inadvertently left; and 
a short time thereafter both the sister and brother 
died suddenly, one on one day and the other on the 
following, from poison in the coffee which had been 
prepared and served by the domestics in the house. 
The conclusion was irresistible that they had been 
murdered by the negroes in order that the latter 
might obtain the freedom that had been provided 
for them by the will. The will was probated and 
its provisions carried out by Gordon, who qualified 



3i8 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

as administrator. The emancipated slaves were sent 
to Liberia; but they became very much dissatisfied 
after their arrival there, and more than one letter 
came back from them to Virginia, vainly entreating 
that they be returned to America and restored to 
slavery. 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE SLAVERY PETITIONS — SLAVERY AND SECESSION 
THE COMPROMISE OF 1850. 

The Ordinance of 1787 prohibited slavery in the 
Northwest Territory, that magnificent domain 
whose bestowal upon the Government of the United 
States by Virginia has entitled her since to the proud 
and significant appellation of "Mother of States." 
The State of Ohio was formed out of a portion of 
the Northwest Territory, and was admitted Into the 
Union on November 2, 1802. The territory of the 
new State was rapidly settled; and thenceforward, 
during Mr. Jefferson's administrations, repeated and 
persistent efforts were made by citizens of Ohio, who 
are said to have felt the hardships of pioneer life, 
and to have pictured to themselves "in golden colors 
the ease and affluence Incident to slave labor as It 
existed In the South," to legalize slavery In the re- 
gion northwest of the Ohio River. 

In the House of Representatives on the 8th of 
February, 1803, a communication was presented 
from Mr. William Henry Harrison, president of 
the convention of the Territory of Indiana, memo- 
rializing Congress on behalf of the convention, to 
suspend the article prohibiting slavery in the North- 
west 1 erritory. 

Reports were made In favor of several similar 
petitions sent in to Congress, but they were never 
acted on; and finally a committee, of which Ran- 
dolph of Roanoke was chairman, reported that it 
was not expedient at that time to suspend the sixth 
article of the compact of the government of the ter- 
ritory northwest of the Ohio River, which was the 
article prohibitive of slavery. 



320 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

This ended the slavery dream of the people of the 
Northwest Territory. 

It was hoped and believed by many that the Mis- 
souri Compromise, that sectional measure of demar- 
cation which made two different peoples in one gov- 
ernment, and alarmed Jefferson "like a fire-bell in 
the night," would end the question of slavery. But 
the issue was one that would not down. From the 
time of Gordon's entrance into Congress in 1830 
until the final disposition of the institution of slav- 
ery by wager of battle, it was a thing that seemed 
to be almost constantly in the public mind. 

When the true history of slavery shall come to 
be written by the dispassionate and philosophical 
historian, the attitude of the State-Rights slave- 
holders towards it as an institution will be better un- 
derstood. "What is called slavery," said Mr. Cal- 
houn, "is in reality a political institution, essential to 
the peace, safety, and prosperity ot those States of 
the Union in which it exists." Gordon believed, 
with Calhoun, that it was so inextricably interwoven 
with the State-Rights doctrine of constitutional con- 
struction, that the abolition of the one meant the 
subversion of the other; and it was a belief entirely 
consistent with his attitude to the "basis" question 
in the Virginia Convention of 1 829-1 830, where he 
had aroused the wrath of the slave-holders of the 
eastern part of the State by espousing the cause of 
the white basis, as against that of the "federal num- 
bers." The number of slaves in the slave-holding 
States had become very large; and the advocates 
of slavery viewed with an alarm that was prophetic 
the danger and the evils of emancipating such a popu- 
lation, and leaving them as freemen in the commu- 
nity. 

Before the admission of Ohio, and the petitions 
of citizens of the Northwest Territory for slavery, 
the anti-slavery agitation had been begun. In 1790 
petitions of Quakers in Pennsylvania and New York 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 321 

were presented in Congress for the abolition of the 
slave-trade. Benjamin Franklin signed as its Presi- 
dent "a memorial of the Pennsylvania Society for 
promoting the abolition of slavery, the relief of free- 
negroes held in bondage, and the improvement of 
the African race." This memorial was presented to 
Congress in the same year. At intervals, to 1820, 
various petitions in regard to slavery, chiefly from 
the Quakers, were presented; and in the latter year 
a number of petitions were offered against the in- 
troduction of slavery into any State thereafter to be 
admitted into the Union. Some of these were re- 
ferred to committees, and others were merely read. 
It was not till 1827 that the abolition campaign was 
begun on a business principle by the presentation on 
February 12, of that year, by Mr. Barney of Mary- 
land, of a memorial of certain citizens of Baltimore, 
praying that children thereafter born of slave parents 
in the District of Columbia might be free. The House 
refused to print the memorial, on the motion of Mr. 
McDuffie of South Carolina, and after a debate in 
which Mr. Dorsey of Maryland stated that the 
memorial breathed the general spirit of emancipa- 
tion, and that though its request began with the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, its ulterior purpose went much 
further. Four years later John Quincy Adams pre- 
sented fifteen petitions from inhabitants of Penn- 
sylvania praying for the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia, and the abolition of the slave- 
trade therein. Mr. Adams asked that the petitions 
be referred to the committee on the District, saying 
that he regarded the abolition of the slave-trade in 
the District of Columbia a proper subject for legis- 
lative disposition; but that he would not support 
the abolition of slavery there. 

In 1830, the year In which Gordon entered Con- 
gress, — as shown by the corrected census of that year, 
published in Force's "National Calendar" for 1832, 



322 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

— every one of the then twenty-seven States and Ter- 
ritories of the Union was a slave-holding State or Ter- 
ritory, with the exception of Vermont; although the 
number of slaves in the New England States and in 
Ohio and Indiana was nominal. 

In 1836 petitions for abolition in the District of 
Columbia poured into Congress; and Mr. Adams 
became the vehicle of their presentation. Mr. Cal- 
houn proposed in 1837, in the Senate, a resolution 
"That the intermeddling of any State, or States, or 
their citizens, to abolish slavery in this District, or in 
any of the Territories, on the ground, or under the 
pretext that it is immoral or sinful, or the passage 
of any act or measure of Congress with that view 
would be a direct and dangerous attack on the insti- 
tutions of all the slave-holding States." 

On motion of Mr. Clay this resolution was 
amended so as to provide "That when the District 
of Columbia was ceded by the States of Virginia 
and Maryland to the United States, domestic slav- 
ery existed in both of those States, including the 
ceded territory; and that as it still continues in both 
of them, it could not be abolished within the Dis- 
trict, without a violation of that good faith which 
was implied in the cession, and in the acceptance 
of the territory, nor, unless compensation were made 
for the slaves, without a manifest infringement of 
an amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States; nor without exciting a degree of just alarm 
and apprehension in the States recognizing slavery, 
far transcending in mischievous tendency any pos- 
sible benefit which would be accomplished by the 
abolition." 

The petitions continued to pour in, and the ex- 
citement over them In the House was Intense. In 
1838 Mr. Henry L. Pinckney of South Carolina 
moved, in the House of Representatives, a series 
of resolutions which provided that all the petitions 
should be referred to a select committee, with in- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 323 

structlons to report that Congress could not con- 
stitutionally interfere with slavery in the States, and 
ought not to do so in the District of Columbia. The 
House adopted the resolutions, adding soon after 
a further provision reported from this committee 
that thereafter all petitions which related in any way 
to slavery or its abolition should be laid on the table, 
without action and without being printed or re- 
ferred. Adams and Henry A. Wise met in fierce 
debate over the petitions. The former, who had 
started out in 1831 as the opponent of the aboli- 
tion of slavery in the District, continued its op- 
ponent to the end. Wise, at a later period, said of 
him, that Mr. Adams "again and again, in the lobby, 
on the floor, told me vauntingly that the pulpit would 
preach, and the school would teach, and the press 
would print, among the people who had no tie and 
no associations with slavery, until would not only 
be reached the slave-trade between the States, the 
slave-trade in the District of Columbia, slavery in 
the District, slavery in the Territories, but slavery 
in the States. Again and again he said that he would 
not abolish slavery in the District of Columbia if 
he could; for he would retain it as a bone of conten- 
tion — a fulcrum of the lever for agitation, agitation, 
until slavery in the States was shaken from its base. 
And his prophesies have been fulfilled — fulfilled far 
faster and more fearfully, certainly, than ever he 
anticipated before he died." 

The petitions still continued to come in. On the 
25th of February, 1850, Mr. Giddings of Ohio, 
in the House of Representatives, presented two pe- 
titions, one from Isaac Jeffries and other citizens of 
Pennsylvania, and the other from John T. Wood- 
ward and other citizens of Delaware and Pennsyl- 
vania, which were as follows : 

"We, the undersigned inhabitants of Pennsyl- 
vania and Delaware, believing that the Federal Con- 



324 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

stitution, in pledging the strength of the whole na- 
tion to support slavery, violates the Divine law, 
makes war upon human rights, and is grossly incon- 
sistent with republican principles; that its attempt 
to unite slavery in one body politic has brought upon 
the country great and manifold evils, and has fully 
proved that no such union can exist, but by the sac- 
rifice of freedom to the supremacy of slavery, re- 
spectfully ask you to devise and propose, without 
delay, some plan for the immediate, peaceful disso- 
lution of the American Union." 

The House declined to receive these petitions by 
a vote of 162 to 80. On February ist, 1850, the 
same petitions, praying a dissolution of the Union, 
were presented in the Senate by Mr. Hale of New 
Hampshire. Three Senators voted for their recep- 
tion; viz: Messrs. Hale, Chase of Ohio, and Seward 
of New York. 

Calhoun assailed the petitions, from the time of 
their first multitudinous flood upon Congress down 
to his death, as "in themselves a foul slander on 
nearly one half of the States of the Union." Von 
Hoist says of his attitude towards them : "The 
charge was wholly unfounded that he was endeavor- 
ing intentionally to incense the North and the South 
against each other, in order to promote the purpose 
of his party. He spoke the simple truth, when he 
asserted in his speech of March 9, 1836, that 'how- 
ever caluminated and slandered,' he had 'ever been 
devotedly attached' to the Union and the institu- 
tions of the country, and that he was 'anxious to 
perpetuate them to the latest generation.' He acted 
under the firm conviction of an imperious duty to- 
wards the South and towards the Union, and his 
assertion was but too well founded that these peti- 
tions for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia were blows on the wedge, which would 
ultimately break the Union asunder." 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 325 

The abolitionists were the original secessionists, 
who desired to destroy the Constitution and the Un- 
ion, and to separate from the slave-holding States; 
and the State-Rights strict constructionists of Cal- 
houn's type were the genuinely patriotic adherents 
of the Union and of its constitutional institutions. 
Gordon lived long enough after his retirement from 
active participation in public affairs to read that Mr. \ 
Wendell Phillips of Massachusetts said at a meet- 
ing in Boston in May, 1849, "We confess that we 
intend to trample under foot the constitution of this I 
country;" and that Mr. William Loyd Garrison de- ^ 
manded in his paper, The Liberator, in September, 
1855, "a Northern Confederacy, with no Union 
with slave-holders;" and that in the same paper of 
June 20, 1856, he denounced the United States Con- 
stitution as "a covenant with death and an agree- 
ment with hell." 

Horace Mann said in the House of Representa- 
tives, during the 3 ist Congress: "Uncier a full sense 
of my responsibility to my countrv and my God, I 
deliberately say, better disunion — better a civil or 
a servile war — better anything that God in his provi- 
dence shall send — than an extension of the bounds of 
slavery." The Rev. O. B. Frothingham of New Jer- 
sey said at a meeting of the American Anti-Slavery 
Society in New York, May 13, 1857: "He believed 
that this Union effectually prevented them from ad- 
vancing in the least degree the work of the slave's 
redemption * * * As to the word Union, they all 
knew it was a political catchword." 

Mr. Calhoun, on the contrary, with the prescience 
of the Hebrew prophet, said: "To destroy the ex- 
isting relations would be to destroy this prosperity 
(of the Southern States), and to place the two races 
in a state of conflict, which must end in the expul- 
sion or extirpation of one or the other. No other 
can be substituted compatible with their peace or 
security. The difficulty is^ in the diversity of the 



326 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

races. So strongly drawn is the line between the two 
in consequence, and so strengthened by the force of 
habit and education, that it is impossible for them 
to exist together in the community, where their num- 
bers are so nearly equal as in the slave-holding 
States, under any other relation than that which now 
exists. Social and political equality between them 
is impossible. No power on earth can overcome the 
difficulty. The causes lie too deep in the principles 
of our nature to be surmounted. But, without such 
equality, to change the present condition of the Afri- 
can race, were it possible, would be but to change 
the form of slavery." 

The breach between North and South came to be 
an ever-widening one; and the wedge of their divi- 
sion, driven home by the persistent and relentless 
blows of the abolitionists, was slavery. The North 
had learned to look upon the Union under the Con- 
stitution as desirable only so long as it seemed use- 
ful or agreeable; for New England had attempted 
in 1803 to create a Northern Confederacy, consist- 
ing of five States of her territory, with New York 
and New Jersey; and after withdrawing from co- 
operation with the prosecution of the War of 18 12, 
had held a convention of those States to formulate 
sectional autonomy. With the continued introduc- 
tion of the abolition petitions into Congress, the 
North now began to regard State-Rights and the 
strict construction of the Constitution as mere dog- 
mas, set up and persisted in by the South for the 
perpetuation of the hated institution. 

Calhoun, with towering genius and prophetic 
foresight, beheld in the proposed abolition of slavery 
the overthrow of the society upon whose continued 
existence the happiness, the prosperity and the free- 
dom of the people of the Southern States depended; 
and he foresaw, no less unerringly, in emancipation 
the destruction of the right of local self-government 
by the subversal of the State-Rights doctrine. The 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 327 

time for the revolution which Jefferson had justified 
in his letter of January i, 1826, to Gordon, and of 
which Calhoun asserted the right in his toast at the 
Jefferson Birthday Dinner in 1830, seemed to be 
drawing very near to the strict constructionists of the 
South in the year 1850. 

"When the future historian," quotes Benton from 
a leading South Carolina newspaper, published on 
January i, 1850, "shall address himself to the task 
of portraying the rise, progress and decline of the 
American Union, the year 1850 will arrest his at- 
tention as denoting and presenting the first marshal- 
ling and arraying of those hostile forces and oppos- 
ing elements which resulted in dissolution; and the 
world will have another illustration of the great 
truth that forms and modes of government, how- 
ever correct in theory, are only valuable as they con- 
duce to the great ends of all government, — the peace, 
quiet, and conscious security of the governed." 

The spirit of separation, which had been illus- 
trated in New England by the Hartford Conven- 
tion, and which had since flamed out in the abolition 
speeches of Giddings and Frothingham and Garri- 
son, had begun in 1850 to take possession of many 
of the people of the South, who loved the Union, 
but who loved better the liberty which abolitionism 
assailed in assailing the constitution of government 
intended to preserve it. 

Compromise after compromise of vital and an- 
tagonistic principles, involving constitutional con- 
struction, the rights of the States, and the institution 
of slavery, had followed each other, until thought- 
ful and far-seeing men began to anticipate that final 
decision which came in the next decade. There had 
been compromises in the formation of the Federal 
Constitution itself, which were, even at the time of 
its formation and adoption, big with deferred 
trouble. The Missouri Compromise, which Ran- 
dolph of Roanoke had called "a dirty bargain." 



328 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

while he denounced the "dough-faces" from the 
North who helped to make it, had been a further 
source of continued controversy and alienation. Mr. 
Clay's tariff compromise, in Jackson's administration, 
had left unsettled the tariff question, though it had 
served to end Nullification, and now, in 1850, the 
Jeffersonians and the Hamiltonians faced each other, 
in a crisis of passions, upon the same dividing issues 
of constitutional interpretation that had aroused the 
animosities and stirred the prejudices of the makers 
of the Constitution themselves. 

During the last days of Polk's administration, 
Calhoun, convinced that the right of self-govern- 
ment of the Southern States was approaching a 
period of imminent peril, urged among his followers 
a more compact union on the part of the South. 
Under his advice a large number of Senators and 
Representatives from the Southern States united in 
an address to the people of the South, setting out 
the wrongs which they had received at the hands of 
the North, which required redress. In response to 
this serious political document a convention of dele- 
gates of the people of Mississippi, chosen without 
regard to party affiliation, assembled in October, 

1849, in that State, and recommended that "a con- 
vention of slave-holding States should be held at 
Nashville, Tennessee, on the first Monday of June, 

1850, to devise and adopt some mode of resistance 
to the aggression of the non-slave-holding States." 

On May 8, 1850, Mr. Clay reported to the Senate 
as Chairman of the Committee of Thirteen another 
compromise of the threatening questions of disunion 
and slavery. The strict constructionists of the South 
had in the meantime appointed their delegates to 
the Nashville Convention; though many hung back, 
hoping again for the intervention of the hitherto 
unfailing "compromise." Henry A. Wise, who had 
been chosen as the delegate from his district in Vir- 
ginia to this gathering, wrote a letter to William 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 329 

H. Roy, the president of the Virginia Convention to 
select delegates to Nashville, in which he voiced the 
sentiment of the Democrats of the Commonwealth 
on the subject of further compromise. 

"If the Constitution of the United States," wrote 
Mr. Wise, "shall be nullified by a majority doctrine 
and become frittered away by the awful pacification 
of compromises upon compromises, the Union will 
no longer exist as it was formed by the Adamses and 
Shermans and Franklins and Hamiltons and Lees 
and Randolphs and Madisons and Rutledgcs of the 
Revolution; it will cease itself to be a compromise, 
the compromise of compromises, as it was in 1789; 
it will become the absolutism of a many-headed 
monster of oppression, inequality and dishonor to 
us, and we will be obliged to resist it as our fathers 
did 'taxation without representation,' or lose our 
self-respect and the respect of the rest of mankind, 
and cease to be a free people." 

The Congress of Mr. Clay's Compromise Bill of 
1850 was absorbed by the tremendous question of 
slavery. In June 5, 1850, Mr. Chase of Ohio moved 
an amendment to the bill in the Senate, "that noth- 
ing herein contained shall be construed as authoriz- 
ing or permitting the introduction of slavery or the 
holding of persons as property within said territory" 
(of Utah and New Mexico). The amendment was 
lost. Mr. Seward of New York, moved as an 
amendment, that "neither slavery nor Involuntary 
servitude otherwise than upon conviction for crime, 
shall be allowed in either of said Territories of 
Utah and New Mexico." It was the language of 
the coming Fourteenth Amendment to the Consti- 
tution of the United States, paraphrased from the 
Ordinance of 1787 prohibiting slavery in the North- 
west Territory. Mr. Seward's amendment was lost. 
Mr. Davis of Mississippi, the future President of 
the Confederate States of America offered the fol- 
lowing amendment: "And that all laws or parts 



330 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

of laws, usages or customs pre-existing In the terri- 
tory acquired by the United States from Mexico, 
and which in said Territories restrict, abridge or 
obstruct the full enjoyment of any right of person 
or property of a citizen of the United States, as 
recognized or guaranteed by the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, are hereby declared and 
shall be held as repealed." Mr. Davis' amendment 
was lost. Mr. Douglas of Illinois, later, in i860, 
the nominee of a faction of the Democratic party 
for President, at the suggestion of Mr. Davis of 
Mississippi, proposed the Missouri Compromise 
line as the southern boundary of Utah. Mr. Doug- 
las' proposition was lost. 

In the House of Representatives Mr, Root of Ohio 
had offered on December 31, 1849, ^ resolution in- 
structing the committee on Territories to bring in 
territorial bills for that part of the Mexican terri- 
tory which had been ceded to the United States by 
the treaty of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, lying eastward 
of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and prohibiting 
slavery therein. Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, later 
the Vice-President of the Confederate States, moved 
to lay Mr. Root's resolution on the table. The mo- 
tion was adopted. The affirmative vote was a South- 
ern one, with the addition of ten votes from Illinois, 
New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio. The negative 
votes came entirely from the North. 

On February 14, 1850, Mr. Giddings, abolition- 
ist member from Ohio, offered in the House a reso- 
lution, "that we hold these truths to be self-evident, 
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed 
by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life 
and liberty, and that governments are instituted to 
maintain these rights. That in constituting govern- 
ment in any territory of the United States, it is the 
duty of Congress to secure to all the people thereof, 
of whatever complexion, the enjoyment of the rights 
aforesaid." On the motion of a Southern member 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 331 

the resolution was laid on the table by a majority 
composed almost entirely of Southerners. 

On May 27, 1850, Mr. Cromwell moved to sus- 
pend the rules to enable him to introduce a bill to 
abolish the slave-trade in the District of Colum- 
bia. The motion to suspend was lost by a sectional 
vote, but one Northern man, a member from Ohio, 
voting in the negative, and no Southerner voting 
in the affirmative. On September 5, 1850, Mr. 
Toombs of Georgia offered an amendment to the 
New Mexico territorial bill, that "the Constitution 
of the United States, and such statutes thereof as 
may not be locally inapplicable, and the common law 
as it existed in the British Colonies of America until 
the 4th day of July, 1776, shall be the exclusive 
laws of said territory upon the subject of African 
slavery until altered by the people's authority." The 
whole North and seven Southern members voted nay, 
and the rest of the South voted aye, and the amend- 
ment was lost. On September 24, 1850, Mr. Pres- 
ton King of New York asked leave to introduce a 
bill abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. 
The House refused to suspend the rules. Every 
man who voted in the affirmative was from the 
North. 

North and South, regardless of party, were ar- 
rayed against each other on the question of slavery, 
and Jefferson's "fire-bell in the night" was now 
clanging an ominous and ceaseless alarum. 

Mr. Clay's compromise measure of 1850 had been 
originally one bill. It was debated throughout the 
summer session of Congress; and was by degrees 
separated into a number of individual bills. These 
were all passed by the Senate and the House in the 
months of August and September, and having been 
signed by the President, became laws. In the mean- 
time, the Southern Convention had met at Nashville 
in June, and had adjourned, after the adoption of 
resolutions, to meet there again in November fol- 



332 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

lowing — a meeting that proved futile, since James 
M. Mason of Virginia had written into Clay's com- 
promise measure a fugitive slave law, that recon- 
ciled a majority of the Southern people to a postpone- 
ment of the mighty issue, which Gordon, and most 
of his associates in the convention's second assemblage 
in November, perceived was inevitable and already 
imminent. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

THE NASHVILLE CONVENTION OF 1850 THE 

CRADLE OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY 

The movement which culminated in the calling of 
the Southern Convention of 1850 at Nashville was a 
highly patriotic one from the standpoint of those 
who fostered it, and was largely inspired by the 
statesmanship of Mr. Calhoun. 

"The great object of a Southern convention," he 
wrote to Mr. Collin S. Tarpley, of Mississippi, on 
July 9, 1849, "should be to put forth in a solemn 
manner the causes of our grievances in an address to 
the other states, and to admonish them, in a solemn 
manner, as to the consequences which must follow, if 
they should not be redressed, and to take measures 
preparatory to it, in case they should not be. The 
call should be addressed to all those who are desirous 
to save the Union and our institutions, and who in the 
alternative, should it be forced on us, of submission 
or dissolving the partnership, would prefer the lat- 
ter." 

Calhoun and Gordon, and men who thought with 
them, believed that the time had come for some de- 
cisive action. Every Northern State save one had 
indicated then, or indicated very soon thereafter, by 
resolutions adopted by its legislature, an adherence to 
the Wilmot Proviso — which was an addition offered 
on behalf of many Northern Democrats, by Mr. 
Wilmot of Pennsylvania, a Democratic member of 
Congress, to the bill in the House of Representatives 
appropriating two millions of dollars for the pur- 
chase of territory from Mexico, applying to any sub- 
sequently acquired territory the provision of the Or- 
dinance of 1787, that it should have "neither slavery 
nor involuntary servitude except for crime, whereof 



334 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

the party shall first be duly convicted." This Wilmot 
Proviso had been supported In the House of Repre- 
sentatives, where It was enacted, by the Northern 
Democrats and by the Whigs; but It was sent 
to the Senate too late to be acted on. Every 
Southern legislature, save one, had denounced the 
proposed exclusion of slavery from new territory by 
the Federal Government, as a violation of the Con- 
stitution of the United States and of the reserved 
rights of the States. 

The convention met at Nashville on the day ap- 
pointed, with representatives from five states. Gor- 
don, who for a long time had retired from active 
participation In Federal politics, was deeply Interested 
In the movement, and had a profound appreciation 
of Its significance. The Virginia delegates who at- 
tended In June were Messrs. Beverley Tucker, New- 
ton, Gholson, Wm. O. Goode, Claypoole, and Gor- 
don. On the 6th of June, 1850, Gordon wrote to 
his wife from Nashville: 

"I am perfectly well, and very busy with the affairs 
of the convention. We have had a great deal of 
talent, and a spirit of conciliation, and much una- 
nimity so far In our councils. I cannot say when the 
convention will adjourn. We, I think, cannot ter- 
minate our meeting until next week. I am pleased I 
came. I have been much interested In the fine coun- 
try and the good-looking population of the States 
through which I have passed. I am very desirous to 
return home, and expected to receive a letter from 
home; but as yet have been disappointed. 

"The town of Nashville is a very handsome town. 
The public and private edifices are on a scale of mag- 
nificence. Everything shows the prosperity of the 
country. If we can once compose our differences 
with the North, I am sure the slave-holding States 
will continue more and more to demonstrate the value 
of our institutions, both In the wealth and the refine- 
ment of their population." 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 335 

The sessions of the Convention attracted the at- 
tention of the whole country; and the Southern news- 
papers made its proceedings a conspicuous feature of 
their news-reports. The convention adjourned on 
June 13, 1850, after a session of ten days, to meet 
again in Nashville in the following November, when 
Congress should have finally adjourned. An address 
to the people of the United States was adopted; and 
a series of resolutions were agreed upon as follows : 

"i. Resolved, That the territories of the United 
States belong to the people of the several States of 
this Union, as their common property; that the citi- 
zens of the several States have equal rights to mi- 
grate with their property to these territories and are 
equally entitled to the protection of the Federal Gov- 
ernment in the enjoyment of that property so long as 
the territories remain under the charge of that gov- 
ernment. 

"2. Resolved, That Congress has no power to ex- 
clude from the territory of the United States any 
property lawfully held in the States of the Union, 
and any acts which may be passed by the Congress to 
effect this result is a plain violation of the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. 

"3. Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress to 
provide governments for the territories, since the 
spirit of American institutions forbids the mainten- 
ance of military governments in time of peace; and 
as all laws heretofore existing in territories once be- 
longing to foreign powers which interfere with the 
full enjoyment of religion, the freedom of the press, 
the trial by jury, and all other rights of persons and 
property as secured or recognized in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, are necessarily void so soon 
as such territories become American territories, it is 
the duty of the Federal Government to make early 
provision for the enactment of those laws, which may 
be expedient and necessary to secure to the inhabi- 



336 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

tants of and emigrants to such territories the full 
benefit of the constitutional rights we assert. 

"4. Resolved, That to protect property existing in 
the several States of the Union, the people of these 
States invested the Federal Government with the 
powers of war and negotiation, and of sustaining arm- 
ies and navies, and prohibited to State authorities 
the exercise of the same powers. They made no 
discrimination in the protection to be afforded or the 
description of the property to be defended, nor was 
it allowed to the Federal Government to determine 
what should be held as property. Whatever the 
States deal with as property, the Federal Govern- 
ment is bound to recognize and defend as such. 
Therefore it is the sense of this convention that all 
acts of the Federal Government which tend to de- 
nationalize property of any description recognized 
in the Constitution and laws of the States, or that dis- 
criminate in the degree and efficiency of the protection 
to be afforded to it, or which weaken or destroy the 
title of any citizen upon American territories, are 
plain and palpable violations of the fundamental law 
under which it exists. 

"5. Resolved, That the slave-holding States cannot 
and will not submit to the enactment by Congress of 
any law imposing onerous conditions or restraints 
upon the rights of masters to remove with their 
property into the territories of the United States, 
or to any law making discriminations in favor of the 
proprietors of other property against them. 

"6. Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal 
Government plainly to recognize and firmly to main- 
tain the equal rights of the citizens of the several 
States in the territories of the United States, and to 
repudiate the power to make a discrimination be- 
tween the proprietors of different species of prop- 
erty in the federal legislation. The fulfilment of this 
duty by the Federal Government would greatly tend 
to restore the peace of the country, and to allay the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 337 

exasperation and excitement which now exist between 
the different sections of the Union. For it is the 
dehberate opinion of this Convention that the toler- 
ance Congress has given to the notion that federal 
authority might be employed incidentally and indi- 
rectly to subvert or weaken the institution existing in 
the States confessedly beyond federal jurisdiction and 
control, is a main cause of the discord which menaces 
the existence of the Union, and which has well nigh 
destroyed the efficient action of the Federal Govern- 
ment itself. 

"7. Resolved, That the performance of this duty 
is required by the fundamental law of the Union. 
The equality of the people of the several States com- 
posing the Union cannot be disturbed without dis- 
turbing the frame of the American institutions. 
This principle is violated in the denial to the citizens 
of the slave-holding States of power to enter into the 
territories with the property lawfully acquired in the 
States. The warfare against this right is a war upon 
the Constitution. The defenders of this right are 
defenders of the Constitution. Those who deny or 
impair its exercise are unfaithful to the Constitution; 
and if disunion follows the destruction of the right, 
they are the disunionists. 

"8. Resolved, That the performance of its duties, 
upon the principle we declare, would enable Congress 
to remove the embarrassments in which the country 
is now involved. The vacant territories of the 
United States, no longer regarded as prizes for sec- 
tional rapacity and ambition, would be gradually 
occupied by inhabitants drawn to them by their in- 
terests and feelings. The institutions fitted to them 
would be naturally applied by governments formed 
on American ideas, and approved by the deliberate 
choice of their constituents. The community would 
be educated and disciplined under a republican ad- 
ministration in habits of self-government, and fitted 



338 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

for an association as a State, and to the enjoyment 
of a place in the Confederacy. A community so 
formed and organized might well claim admission to 
the Union, and none would dispute the validity of 
the claim. 

"9. Resolved, That a recognition of this principle 
would deprive the questions between Texas and the 
United States of their sectional character, and would 
leave them for adjustment without disturbance from 
sectional prejudices and passions, upon considerations 
of magnanimity and justice. 

"10. Resolved, That a recognition of this prin- 
ciple would infuse a spirit of conciliation in the dis- 
cussion and adjustment of all the subjects of sectional 
dispute, which would afford a guarantee of an early 
and satisfactory determination. 

"11. Resolved, That in the event a dominant ma- 
jority shall refuse to recognize the great constitu- 
tional rights we assert, and shall continue to deny 
the obligations of the Federal Government to main- 
tain them. It Is the sense of this convention that the 
territories should be treated as property, and divided 
between the sections of the Union, so that the rights 
of both sections be adequately secured In their re- 
spective shares. That we are aware this course Is 
open to grave objections, but we are ready to ac- 
quiesce in the adoption of the line of 36°3o' north 
latitude, extending to the Pacific Ocean, as an extreme 
concession, upon considerations of what is due to the 
stability of our institutions. 

"12. Resolved, That It is the opinion of this con- 
vention that this controversy should be ended, either 
by a recognition of the constitutional rights of the 
Southern people, or by an equitable partition of the 
territories. That the spectacle of a Confederacy of 
States, involved in quarrels over the fruits of a war 
in which the American arms were crowned with glory. 
Is humiliating. That the incorporation of the Wil- 
mot proviso, In the offer of settlement, — a proposi- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 339 

tion which fourteen States regard as disparaging and 
dishonorable, — is degrading to the country. A term- 
ination to this controversy by the disruption of the 
Confederacy, or by the abandonment of the territories 
to prevent such a result, would be a climax to the 
shame which attaches to the controversy which it is the 
paramount duty of Congress to avoid. 

"13. Resolved, That this convention will not con- 
clude that Congress will adjourn without making an 
adjustment of this controversy; and in the condition 
in which the convention finds the questions before 
Congress, it does not feel at liberty to discuss the 
methods suitable for a resistance to measures not yet 
adopted, which might involve a dishonor to the 
Southern States." 

On the loth day of November, Gordon, who had 
returned to Nashville to attend the adjourned ses- 
sion of the convention, wrote to Mrs. Gordon from 
that city : 

"I arrived here last evening without an accident, 
in perfect health. I came most of the way from 
Charleston with some of the South Carolina and 
Florida delegates to the convention, among whom 
were Mr. Barnwell, Judge Cheves, Colonel Gregg, 
and Colonel Chestnutt, the eulogist of Foote. 

"I remained two days in Richmond, and saw a 
number of old acquaintances. From Chattanooga 
to this place we chartered an omnibus, and by easy 
stages passing the Cumberland Mountains, and 
sleeping at night, we reached Nashville with com- 
paratively little fatigue. None of the delegates from 
Mississippi have arrived, but they are on the way. 
There are some here from Georgia and Alabama; 
and most of them are expected to arrive to-day. 

"I am alone from Virginia as yet. I have some 
hope that Messrs. Newton, Goode and Garnett may 
be here, but it is uncertain. 



340 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"There had not been a drop of the fine rain at 
Richmond we had just before I left home, and the 
drought and dust from that to this place were quite 
oppressive; but as I write, it Is raining copiously. 
I can form as yet no Idea when we shall adjourn, but 
I think we shall sit no longer than we did before. I 
augur that our deliberations will be harmonious, and 
our resolves almost unanimous." 

"This convention," says Benton, "took the de- 
cisive step, so far as It depended upon Itself, towards 
a separation of the States. It Invited the assem- 
bling of a Southern Congress. Two States alone 
responded to that appeal — South Carolina and Mis- 
sissippi; and the legislatures of these two passed 
solemn acts to carry it Into effect, — South Carolina 
absolutely, by electing her quota of representatives to 
the proposed Congress; Mississippi provisionally, 
by subjecting her law to the approval of the people." 

In the reassembled convention at Nashville, In No- 
vember, 1850, there were present delegates from seven 
States — two more States than at Its first session. 
Gordon continued the sole representative from Vir- 
ginia. His colleagues, Newton, Goode and Garnett, 
whose coming he had hoped for, did not appear. 
The other States, besides Virginia, that were repre- 
sented In the reassemblage were Georgia, by eleven 
delegates; Alabama, by five; Florida, by four; Mis- 
sissippi, by eight; South Carolina, by sixteen, and 
Tennessee, by fourteen. 

The preamble and resolutions adopted at Its second 
session by the Convention were as follows : 

"We, the delegates assembled from a portion of 
the States of this Confederacy, make this exposi- 
tion of the causes which have brought us together, 
and of the rights which the States we represent are 
entitled to under the compact of the Union. 

"We have amongst us two races marked by such 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 341 

distinctions of color and physical and moral quali- 
ties as forever forbid their living together on terms 
of social and political equality. 

"The black race have been slav^es from the earliest 
settlement of our country, and our relations of mas- 
ter and slave have grown up from that time. A 
change in those relations must end in convulsion, and *• - ^h,, 
the entire ruin of one or both races. 

"When the convention was adopted, this relation 
of master and slave, as it exists, was expressly 
recognized and guarded in that instrument. It was a 
great and vital interest, involving our very existence 
as a separate people, then as well as now. 

"The States of this Confederacy acceded to that 
compact, each one for itself, and ratified it as States. 

"If the non-slaveholding States, who are parties 
to that compact, disregard its provisions and endanger 
our peace and existence by united and deliberate action, 
we have a right as States, there being no common arbi- 
ter, to secede. 

"The object of those who are urging on the Fed- 
eral Government in its aggressive policy upon our 
domestic institution is, beyond all doubt, finally to 
ov^erthrow and abolish the existing relation between 
the master and slave. We feel authorized to assert 
this from their own declarations, and from the his- 
tory of events in this country for the last few years. 

"To abolish slavery or the slave-trade in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia — to regulate the sale and transfer 
of slaves between the States — to exclude slaveholders 
with their property from the territories — to admit 
California under the circumstances of the case, we 
hold to be all parts of the same system of measures, 
and subordinate to the end that they have in view, 
which is openly avowed to be the total overthrow 
of the institution. 

"We make no aggressive move. We stand upon 
the defensive. We invoke the spirit of the Constitu- 
tion, and claim its guarantees. Our rights — our in- 



342 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

dependence — the peace and existence of our families, 
depend upon the issue, 

"The Federal Government has within a few years 
acquired, by treaty and by triumphant war, vast terri- 
tories. This has been done by the counsel and the 
arms of all, and the benefits and rights belong alike 
and equally to all the States. The Federal Govern- 
ment is but the common agent of the States united, 
and represents their conjoined sovereignty over sub- 
ject-matter granted and defined in the compact. 

"The authority it exercises over all acquired terri- 
tory must in good faith be exercised for the equal 
benefit of all the parties. To prohibit our citizens 
from settling there with the most valuable part of our 
property is not only degrading to us as equals, but 
violates our highest constitutional rights. 

"Restrictions and prohibitions against the slave- 
holding States, it would appear, are to be the fixed 
and settled policy of the Government; and those 
States that are hereafter to be admitted into the Fed- 
eral Union from their extensive territories will but 
confirm and increase the power of the majority; and 
he knows little of history who cannot read our des- 
tiny in the future, if we fail to do our duty now as 
free people. 

"We have been harassed and insulted by those who 
ought to have been our brethren, in their constant 
agitation of a subject vital to us and the peace of our 
families. We have been outraged by their gross 
misrepresentations of our moral and social habits, 
and by the manner in which they have denounced us 
before the world. We have had our property enticed 
off, and the means of recovery denied us, by our co- 
states, in the territories of the Union, which we were 
entitled to as political equals under the Constitution. 
Our peace has been endangered by incendiary appeals. 
The Union, instead of being considered a fraternal 
bond, has been used as the means of striking at our 
vital interests. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 343 

"The admission of California under the circum- 
stances of the case, confirms an authorized and revo- 
lutionary seizure of public domain, and the exclusion 
of near half the States of the Confederacy from equal 
rights therein — destroys the line of thirty-six degrees 
thirty minutes, which was originally acquiesced in 
as a matter of compromise and peace, and appro- 
priates to the Northern States one hundred and 
twenty thousand square miles below that line, and is 
so gross and palpable a violation of the principles of 
justice and equality as to shake our confidence in any 
security to be given by that majority who are now 
clothed with power to govern the future destiny of 
the Confederacy. 

"The recent purchase of territory by Congress from 
Texas, as low down as thirty-two degrees on the Rio 
Grande, also indicates that the boundaries of the 
slave-holding States are fixed, and our doom pre- 
scribed, so far as it depends upon the will of a domi- 
nant majority, and nothing now can save us from a de- 
graded destiny but the spirit of freemen, who know 
their rights and are resolved to maintain them, be 
the consequences what they may. 

"We have no powers that are binding upon the 
States we represent. But in order to produce system 
and concerted action, we recommend the following 
resolutions, viz : 

"Resolved, That we have ever cherished and do 
now cherish a cordial attachment to the constitutional 
Union of the States, and that to preserve and per- 
petuate that Union unimpaired, this convention 
originated and has now reassembled. 

"Resolved, That the Union of the States is a 
Union of equal and independent sovereignties, and 
that the powers delegated to the Federal Government 
can be resumed by the several States, whenever it 
may seem to them proper and necessary. 

"Resolved, That all the evils anticipated by the 
South, and which occasioned this convention to as- 



344 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

semble, have been realized by the failure to extend 
the Missouri line of compromise to the Pacific Ocean; 
by the admission of California as a State; by the or- 
ganization of territorial governments for Utah and 
New Mexico, without giving adequate protection to 
the property of the South; by the dismemberment 
of Texas; by the abolition of the slave-trade and 
the emancipation of slaves carried into the District 
of Columbia for sale. 

"Resolved, That we earnestly recommend to all 
parties in the slave-holding states to refuse to go into 
or countenance any national convention, whose ob- 
jects may be to nominate candidates for the Presi- 
dency and Vice-Presidency of the United States, un- 
der any party denomination whatever, until our con- 
stitutional rights are secured. 

"Resolved, That in view of these aggressions, and 
of those threatened and impending, we earnestly 
recommend to the slave-holding States to meet in 
a congress or convention, to be held at such time and 
place as the States desiring to be represented may 
designate, to be composed of double the number of 
their Senators and Representatives in the Congress of 
the United States, intrusted with full power and au- 
thority to deliberate and act with the view and inten- 
tion of arresting further aggression, and, if possible, 
of restoring the constitutional rights of the South, and 
if not, to provide for their future safety and inde- 
pendence. 

"Resolved, That the president of this convention 
be requested to forward copies of the foregoing pre- 
amble and resolutions to the Governors of each of the 
slave-holding States of the Union, to be laid before 
their respective legislatures at their earliest assem- 
bling." 

General Gideon J. Pillow, a member of the con- 
vention, offered a series of resolutions, acquiescing in 
the bills included in the Compromise Measure of 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 345 

1850, but recommending a commercial boycott of 
the Northern States in the event that the compromise 
acts should not be lived up to in good faith; and fur- 
ther providing for the call of a convention of slave- 
holding States in the event of further aggression by 
the North in the way of repealing the fugitive slave 
law, abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia 
or in any State, interfering with the basis of repre- 
sentation fixed on "the Federal numbers," or with 
the transportation of slaves from one slave-holding 
State to another. 

Pillow's resolutions were voted down, and those 
given at length above were adopted. 

In the National Intelligencer, a paper bitterly hos- 
tile to the Southern Convention, appeared the fol- 
lowing brief accounts of the November session : 

"Nashville, Tennessee, June 10. — Mr. Gordon 
said that as chairman of the Committee on Proposi- 
tions, he had a report to make on certain resolutions 
referred to him." 

"Nashville, November 16, 1850. — General Gor- 
don, of Virginia, from the Committee on Resolu- 
tions, reported a series of a strong character, and 
recommending a Southern Congress at such time as 
the States may designate. The proposition is sub- 
stantially the same as that introduced by the delega- 
tion from Alabama." 

"Seventh Day, Southern Convention. — General 
Gordon, of Virginia moved that the preamble and 
resolutions which had been before reported be re- 
committed to the committee. Mr. McDaniel, of 
Georgia moved the previous question, which was put 
and carried without dissent. 

"Mr. Gordon, of Virginia, gave notice that the 
Committee on Resolutions would hold its meeting 
forthwith. Mr. McDaniel of Georgia, then offered 
a preamble and resolutions which were referred; 
and the convention took a recess for half an hour. 

"On the reassembling of the convention General 



346 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Gordon of Virginia stated that he was instructed by 
the Committee on Resolutions to report that they 
had adopted the preamble as reported by the com- 
mittee on Saturday, and had substituted other reso- 
lutions. They are as follows." (Here follow the 
preamble and resolutions as heretofore given.) 
"Mr. Gordon, of Virginia, moved the previous ques- 
tion, and on a call of the States six voted yea, and 
one (Tennessee) nay. The question then recurring 
on the adoption of the report of the committee, it 
was adopted by the same vote." 

The Nashville Banner of the 19th instant con- 
cludes the report of the proceedings of the Nash- 
ville Convention by giving a full list of its members. 
Their names are as follows : 

Virginia : Gen. Wm. F. Gordon ( i ) ; Alabama : 
R. Chapman, Geo. W. Williams, C. C. Clay, Sen., 
Jas. M. Calhoun, T. Buford, (0; Florida: C. H. 
Dupont, Jean H. Verdier, P. W. White, John H. 
McGehee (4); Mississippi: J. M. Acker, J. J. 
Davenport, A. Hutcheson, W. H. Kilpatrick, Pear- 
son Smith, Thos. J. Wharton, J. C. Thompson, Chas. 
McLaron, (8); Georgia: J. G. McWharter, John 
A. Jones, John D. Stell, W. J. Parker, George R. 
Hunter, Robert Bledsoe, James N. Bethune, John 

C. Sneed, Charles J. McDonald, H. I. Benning, Dr. 
Daniels (11); Tennessee: A. V. Broon, G. J. Pil- 
low, A. O. P. Nicholson, A. J. Donelson, J. B. Cle- 
ments, Thos. Claiborne, Dr. J. W. Esselman, W. G. 
Harding, T. McGavock, Thomas Martin, W. H. 
Polk, F. McClaren, T. D. Mosely, L. P. Cheatham 
(14); South Carolina: Langdon Cheves, W. J. 
Hanna, F. W. Pickens, W. C. Young, J. N. Whit- 
ner, Jas. Bradley, Samuel Otterson, Drayton Nance, 

D. F. Jamison, Maxy Gregg, G. A. Trenholm, John 
S. Wilson, James Chestnutt, Jr., Wm. DuBose, R. 
W. Barnwell, R. B. Rhett (16). 

The congressional compromise bills had become a 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 347 

law before the convention reassembled; and though 
Mississippi and South Carolina took active steps to- 
wards the convocation of the Southern Congress, 
the repudiation by the United States Congress of the 
Wilmot Proviso, and the provision for a rigid fugi- 
tive slave law in the Compromise measures, served 
to defer the separation which had, however, become 
inevitable. The Nashville Convention was the 
cradle of the Southern Confederacy. 

His attendance upon the convention, in which he 
was one of the most conspicuous figures, was Gor- 
don's last appearance on the stage of national poli- 
tics. Before the decade was ended he had died; and 
in two years after its ending one of his eight sons had 
been sent as the special emissary of a representative 
convention of Virginians at Richmond to convey to 
Jefferson Davis, Presidentof the Confederate States of 
America, the ancient Commonwealth's Ordinance of 
Secession; — while six of those eight sons had entered 
the armies of the Southern Confederacy; and one of 
them ere the war between the States was a year old, 
had fallen at the head of his charging column, at 
Malvern Hill, in the bloodiest battle of the Seven 
Days fights about Richmond. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

manners and customs of congressmen 

Houston's assault on stanbery — the news- 
papers. 

The manners and customs of the men in public 
life during the period of Gordon's service in Con- 
gress should not be without interest for a later genera- 
tion. In the matter of dress it was not uncommon 
or unfashionable with certain members of Congress 
to wear homespun clothes; and reference has been 
made in an earlier chapter to Gordon's "Virginia 
cloth" suit, which had so pleased his commanding 
officer, General Cocke, during the war of 1812. One 
of Mr. Clay's earliest resolutions in the Kentucky 
legislature recommended that the members should 
wear only such clothes as were the product of do- 
mestic manufacture. This measure of Mr. Clay's was 
denounced by Humphrey Marshall as "the clap- 
trap of a demagogue," a characterization which 
provoked a fierce altercation, and finally resulted in 
a duel, in which both participants were slightly 
wounded. The spirit of frugality prevailed es- 
pecially among the State-Rights men of the period. 
As they did not desire to depend upon the Federal 
Government for the laws affecting their daily per- 
sonal life, so they aspired to be independent of the 
world, as far as it might be possible, in an economic 
way; and it is a significant fact that the virtue of 
frugality has been from the first extolled in all the 
constitutions of Virginia. Mr. Clay epitomized the 
sentiment and the custom, when he said: "A judi- 
cious American farmer in his household may manu- 
facture whatever is requisite for his family. He 
squanders but little in the gewgaws of Europe. He 
presents in epitome what the nation ought to be in 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 349 

extenso. Their manufactories should bear the same 
proportion and effect the same object in relation to 
the whole community, which the part of his house- 
hold employed in domestic manufacturing bears to 
the whole family. It is certainly desirable that the 
exports of the country should continue to be the sur- 
plus production of tillage, and not become those of 
manufacturing establishments. But it is important 
to diminish our imports; to furnish ourselves with 
clothing made by our own industry; and to cease to 
be dependent for the very coats we wear, upon a 
foreign and perhaps inimical country. The nation 
that imports its clothing from abroad is but little less 
dependent than if it imported its bread." 

Mr. Clay's views developed later into an advocacy 
of a tariff as a part of his "American System"; but 
Gordon's admiration and regard for homespun 
clothes grew out of the fact that they were the pro- 
duct of the plantation. The "local self-government" 
which he always advocated was but a part of the 
local and individual self-reliance, which lay at the 
very foundation of the Jeffersonian creed of govern- 
mental ethics. Through no affectation, therefore, but 
from a spirit of patriotic pride, it was a custom of 
Gordon's, and of many of his colleagues, to wear 
homespun costumes; and these were usually cut after 
the fashion of the modern "dress clothes" — a "swal- 
low-tail coat," ornamented with plain brass buttons, 
and the long trousers which had now succeeded the 
colonial knee-breeches, that had continued through 
the earlier administrations of Washington, Adams 
and Jefferson. 

The Continental Congress, following the example 
yet pursued in the English House of Commons, had 
been accustomed to sit in session with their hats on; 
and this custom came down to Andrew Jackson's 
time. "It was thought to be a very great honor 
for the House to 'uncover' for anything or anybody," 
says the author of "The American Congress," who 



350 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

mentions this habit of the body, "The Speaker," 
he continues, "would sit in his chair all through a 
session with his hat on, but when he rose to call the 
attention of the House to any matter he would gen- 
erally doff his hat. About 1830 'cloak rooms' were 
introduced, and gradually the members discontinued 
the practice of wearing their hats during a session." 
A member of the House some years later inveighed 
in a speech upon the burdens, which in his day had 
come to be the share of the members of Congress, 
as compared with the ease and leisure with which the 
earlier Congressmen had been used to transact the 
public business. "It has grown into an established 
usage," he said, "for a member to publish his speeches 
in pamphlet form, and distribute the same among 
his constituents. To this end he must write out his 
speeches, superintend the printing, (aye, and pay 
for it, too), compare the proof sheets, and when the 
little pamphlets have been enveloped, he must go to 
work and frank and direct them by the thousand and 
ten thousand, and after all be faulted for not sending 
out more of them. The onerous labor incident to 
this operation often occupies the attention of members 
while the House is in session, and confusion and waste 
of time in calls of committees or of the House is the 
necessary result. And not only this, but he is ex- 
pected to frank, direct and send tens of thousands of 
speeches and documents furnished at the cost of the 
government. To accomplish this he will sit at his 
desk in the hall franking and directing while a motion 
is made and stated, a resolution offered and read, or 
a bill or amendment reported to the clerk; and when 
he finds a vote about to be taken he throws down his 
pen, perfectly unconscious of the matter before the 
House, and of course, calls for the reading of the 
proposition. Time is wasted in reading it. So we 

go- 

"Sir, forty years ago, our predecessors came to 
this hall every day in full dress at twelve o'clock, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 351 

sat at their desks two or three hours without shaking 
the powder from their locks, rumpling the ruffles 
which garnished their bosoms, soiling their fingers 
with ink, or compromising their personal dignity. 
How different it is now ! So soon as the committees 
act upon the propositions before them, and bring 
the same before the House, or soon thereafter, we 
change the hour of meeting to eleven A. M., and 
afterwards to ten A. M. ; and we adjourn at various 
hours — generally from four to ten o'clock p. M. 
The mornings are occupied in writing letters, frank- 
ing and directing documents, etc., or in attendance 
upon the committees to which we belong. When the 
hour of meeting arrives, it finds us in the midst of a 
letter or with a pile of documents before us. These 
we despatch, and away for the Capitol, — at what 
in Indiana we call a long lope — not in full dress, by 
any means." 

Party feeling ran very high, and occasionally 
charges reflecting on the personal or political char- 
acter or conduct of adversaries were made by poli- 
ticians through the medium of the newspapers or 
upon the floor of legislative bodies in debate. The 
result was not infrequently a collision or a duel. 
One of the most famous of these duels was that be- 
tween Mr. Clay and Randolph of Roanoke, grow- 
ing out of the characterization by the latter of the 
political alliance between Clay and Adams as the 
combination of "Blifil and Black-George — the Puri- 
tan and the black-leg" — an allusion founded upon the 
lives of two of the characters in Fielding's "Tom 
Jones." Another and far more tragic one was that 
between Graves and Cilley, which resulted in the 
death of one of the principals — a bloody conclusion 
for which Mr. Wise of Virginia, who was a second 
in the duel, was, as heretofore stated, unjustly 
charged with responsibility by his political adver- 
saries. 

Many men went armed, either with dirks or sword- 



352 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

canes; and this was especially the case with those 
from the far South and Southwest. A highly in- 
teresting and dramatic episode, which occupied a con- 
siderable length of time for its final disposition, oc- 
curred during the first session of the 2 2d Congress, 
of which Gordon was a member. This was the trial 
of Samuel Houston, the Texan hero, for a breach of 
the privileges of the House in assaulting and beating 
Mr. Stanbery of Ohio, who had taken advantage of 
the exemption of members of Congress from being 
called to account for words spoken in debate. Hous- 
ton, who was even then a notable and picturesque 
personage, afterwards became the first President of 
the Republic of Texas ; and when Texas was admitted 
into the Union as a State, he was elected to the United 
States Senate as one of its two first Senators. When 
he came to the Senate in 1846, he is described as "a 
large, fine-looking, rather eccentric man, who usually 
wore a very conspicuous costume, made up of a big 
Mexican sombrero, a blue coat with brass buttons, 
a flaming red vest, and buff pantaloons." At the 
time of his encounter with Stanbery he wore the cos- 
tume of the Indians with whom he had been living, 
and on account of whom his difficulty with the Ohio 
member originated. 

Houston's career had already been an unusual and 
checkered one. He was a native of Rockbridge 
County, Virginia, and was sprung from that sturdy 
Scotch-Irish strain of Valley Ulstermen, who have 
given to the Union so many of its illustrious names. 
He had been a major-general of the Tennessee troops, 
had served in Congress from 1823 to 1827, and had 
been Governor of Tennessee. In 1829 he had mar- 
ried a young woman of that State, and separated from 
her a few weeks after his marriage, without any ex- 
planation save that his conduct did not reflect upon 
her character. He became very unpopular on this 
account; and leaving the State of Tennessee went 
back to live with his Cherokee friends, in whose 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 353 

interest he had now returned to Washington. Stan- 
bery on the floor of the House charged Houston with 
attempting to get a fraudulent contract with the 
Government for furnishing suppHes to the Indians. 
The account of the Ohio man's accusation was pub- 
Hshed in the National Intelligencer. Houston sent 
Stanbery a note by Cave Johnson, another member, 
requesting to know if his name had been used in de- 
bate by the latter; and if so, whether the newspaper 
had correctly quoted his remarks. Stanbery, instead 
of replying to Houston, addressed a communication 
to Johnson, saying, "I cannot recognize the right of 
Mr. Houston to make the request." What appears 
to have happened thereafter is graphically narrated 
in the testimony of Mr. Alexander Buckner, a Sen- 
ator of the United States from the State of Missis- 
sippi, who, after having been sworn on behalf of 
Houston, who had been summoned to answer to a 
breach of the privilege of the House, testified as fol- 
lows: 

"On the evening of the 13th, I think, after tea was 
over at my boarding-house, I stepped into the room 
of Mr. Gnmdy; we sat there alone conversing for 
a few moments. Governor Houston entered the 
outward door, and passed down the passage, intend- 
ing, as I thought, to pass the door of Mr. Grundy, 
which was partly open at that time; as he came op- 
posite the door, he halted and looked in; I spoke 
to him and asked him into the room ; we indulged 
a while in idle playful conversation. Mr. Blair, 
who was in the adjoining room, in a few minutes 
stepped in also. Governor Houston was relating 
some anecdotes, which occupied our attention some 
fifteen or twenty minutes, when Mr. Blair and myself 
rose to retire; we walked out of the room, it being a 
very fine evening, and turned carelessly toward the 
23 



354 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

outward door, not having any particular object in 
view. Governor Houston came after us, and, as 
he stepped out of the door, took each of us by the 
arm, one on each side of him, and bore us up the 
Avenue. We continued in hght conversation, walk- 
ing slowly, till we came to the cross street which runs 
up to the City Hall, across the Avenue at the end 
of the brick pavement. When we got to that place, 
Mr. Blair observed that we had gone far enough; 
we had gone half way with Houston, and that to be 
polite, he ought to go back with us. Houston an- 
swered, no; saying, I think, that he had company, 
and must go back. At that time we all faced about, 
Houston was rather in the rear, Mr. Blair a little 
in advance on the right; after we faced about Mr. 
Blair moved off very briskly, without waiting for me 
to go with him. I was surprised at this movement, 
and asked Houston what makes Blair go off so fast. 
Houston was standing not directly facing the palings, 
but rather quartering towards it, and quartering to 
me; without answering my question he appeared to 
shift the position of his feet. I saw nothing at the 
time, but soon discovered a gentleman coming across 
the Avenue, and pretty near to us, and near to the 
pavement; at the time I did not recognize the in- 
dividual when I first observed him, but as he ap- 
proached nearer, and was in the act of putting his foot 
upon the pavement, I discovered it to be Mr. Stan- 
bery. It occurred immediately to me that there 
would be a difficulty between them, having understood 
previously that there had been dissatisfaction between 
them. Houston did not reply to my question; as 
Stanbery approached nearer, he appeared to halt in 
his pace. Houston asked if that was Mr. Stanbery; 
he replied very politely, and bowing at the same time, 
'Yes, sir.' 'Then,' said Houston, 'you are the 
damned rascal' ; and, with that, struck him with a 
stick which he held in his hand. Stanbery threw up 
his hands over his head, and staggered back, his hat 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 3s S 

fell off, and he exclaimed, 'Oh, don't.' Houston con- 
tinued to follow him up, and continued to strike him ; 
after receiving several severe blows, Stanbery turned, 
as I thought, to run off. Houston, at that moment, 
sprung upon him in the rear; Stanbery's arms hang- 
ing down apparently defenceless; he seized him, and 
attempted to throw him but was not able to do so. 
Stanbery carried him about on the pavement some 
little time; whether he extricated himself, or Hous- 
ton thrust him from him, I am not able to determine. 
I thought he thrust him from him. As he passed 
him he struck him, and gave him a trip : Stanbery 
fell; when he fell he still continued to hollow; indeed 
he hollowed all the time pretty much, except when 
they v/ere scuffling. I saw Stanbery, after having re- 
ceived several blows, put out both hands in this way; 
he then lying on his back. I did not discover what 
was in his hands, or if anything was, but I heard a 
sound like the snapping of a gun-lock, and I saw par- 
ticles of fire. Houston appeared to take hold of 
Stanbery's hands, and took something from them 
which I could not see; after that, Houston stood up 
more erect, still beating Stanbery with a stick over 
the head, arms, and sides; Stanbery still kept his 
hands spread out. After Houston's giving him sev- 
eral other blows, he lay on his back and put up his 
feet ; Houston then struck him elsewhere. Mr. Stan- 
bery, after having received several blows, ceased to 
hollow, and lay, as I thought, perfectly still. All 
this time I had not spoken to either of the parties, or 
interfered in any manner whatever. I now thought 
Stanbery was badly hurt, or perhaps killed, from the 
manner in which he lay : I stepped up to Houston to 
tell him to desist, but without being spoken to, he 
quit of his own accord. Mr. Stanbery then got up 
on his feet; and I then saw the pistol in the right hand 
of Governor Houston, for the first time; some alter- 
cation passed between them. Houston observed that 
he had taken the pistol from Stanbery. Mr. Stan- 



356 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

bery, about that time, asked Houston why he at- 
tempted to assassinate him in the night? Houston 
replied he had not attempted to assassinate him, but 
had chastised him for having traduced his reputa- 
tion. By this time, a crowd had gathered round; 
and some person, I do not know who, spoke to Hous- 
ton. Houston replied that he attended to his own 
business, and that he had chastised the damned scoun- 
drel; if he had offended the law, he would answer 
for what he had done; he repeated that he had dis- 
armed him, and borne off his pistol. Houston then 
walked off, and left me; then, after standing for a 
few moments, I walked off and left Stanbery stand- 
ing with the crowd." 

It appeared from the testimony of another witness 
that Houston was armed with a sword-cane, which 
v/as disclosed, not by his attempting to draw the 
sword, but by the lower part of the cane which con- 
stituted the sheath flying off while he was in the act 
of striking Stanbery with it. 

The trial in the House of Representatives, which 
lasted nearly a month, excited great interest; and 
during its progress ladies were "admitted within the 
hall." The judgment of the House, indicated by a 
vote of ninety-six to eighty-four, was that Houston 
should be brought to the bar of the House and re- 
primanded by the Speaker for contempt and a viola- 
tion of the privileges of the House, and then dis- 
charged from custody. Gordon voted with the min- 
ority against the reprimand. The sentiment of most 
of the Southern members was that although the privi- 
lege of the House forbade members being called to 
account for words spoken in debate, yet no member 
should speak words in debate for which he was un- 
willing to hold himself responsible. Houston re- 
ceived the reprimand, after filing a written protest 
denying the jurisdiction of the House to try him, and 
was discharged from custody. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 357 

The National Intelligencer, in which had appeared 
the account of Stanbery's speech, that gave such um- 
brage to Governor Houston, was conducted by Wil- 
liam Winston Seaton, a Virginian who was descended 
from the ancient Scotch family of Seaton, and had 
received his education when a youth in Richmond 
from a Scotch nobleman, the Earl of Findlater, who 
at that time was a refugee from his native land, and 
taught a school in the Virginia capital. Seaton and 
his partner, Joseph Gales, Jr., a North Carolinian 
who was Seaton's brother-in-law, and also a brilliant 
writer, were for many years the official reporters of 
Congress, and published "the leading debates and 
incidents" of its sessions in the "Register of Debates." 
Their newspaper, the National Intelligencer, after 
the organization of the Whig party, became the re- 
presentative journal of that faction, and exercised a 
great political influence. It was an aphorism in the 
later days of Whiggery, that "if a man were found 
dead with a copy of the National Intelligencer in his 
pocket, though he were otherwise unknown, he might 
be counted to be a Whig and a gentleman" — a saying 
which had its parallel in the story that was current 
at an even later period, to the effect that a certain 
veteran Whig editor of Petersburg, Virginia, upon 
being asked by an ingenuous youth, if there were any 
gentlemen in the Democratic party, said, after a 
pause, and thoughtfully, "There may be a few, my 
son ; but, they are in damned bad company I" 

The journalism of the period was of a very differ- 
ent character from that of the later generations. 
Long political essays, signed with the classic names 
of Greek or Roman statesmen, and discussing the 
profoundest questions of constitutional government, 
continued to fill the columns of the newspaper press 
to a comparatively late period in the first half _ of the 
nineteenth century. But the most characteristic feat- 
ure of this old-fashioned journalism was the person- 
ality of the editors of the several prominent journals. 



358 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

The National Intelligencer meant Gales and Seaton, 
as later the New York Herald meant Bennett, and 
the Tribune meant Greeley. 

In Virginia for forty years there was no more 
powerful political influence than that exercised by 
Thomas Ritchie through the columns of the Rich- 
mond Enquirer; and no cause had anywhere in the 
Union an abler champion than did that of the State- 
Rights Democracy in his potential advocacy of its 
principles. Lie began the publication of his paper 
in Richmond in 1804; and was the editor and pub- 
lisher of the "Debates of the Convention of 1829- 
1830." He was king-maker among the politicians; 
and the young and talented men of his party in the 
State always received from him, through the En- 
quirer, recognition of their talents and energies, and 
a helping hand. Gordon was among his many and 
ardent admirers, and was greatly interested In his 
career. 

Mr. Ritchie's long experience as an editor, his ac- 
quaintance with public men, and his prominence and 
Influence In the councils of his party, made him during 
the larger part of his career one of the most conspicu- 
ous figures In the State and national politics of his 
times; while it has been not inaptly said of the En- 
quirer under his editorship, that the history of Vir- 
ginia for forty years might be written from Its col- 
umns. 

Mr. Ritchie's great journalistic antagonist In Vir- 
ginia was John Hampden Pleasants, a son of Gov- 
ernor James Pleasants, who founded and was for 
many years the editor of the Richmond Whig, the 
chief exponent of Whig doctrines In the Common- 
wealth for more than two decades. Mr. Ritchie's 
son, Thomas Ritchie, Junior, and Mr. Pleasants en- 
gaged In a duel that unfortunately grew out of 
political articles in their respective papers, and In this 
encounter the latter was killed. 

The state of party feeling, as Illustrated In the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 359 

newspaper press, during the debate on the Deposit 
Banks bill in 1835, is set out from the standpoint of 
a supporter of the Sub-Treasury amendment in a 
speech on the floor of the House, which may be taken 
as an extreme presentation of one who was smarting 
under what he regarded as the outrageous license of 
contemporary journalism. 

"Mr. Clayton, of Georgia," says the official report, 
"rose and said: Mr. Speaker, I have two objects 
in wishing to address the House upon the question 
under debate; the first is to justify myself against 
a calumny, and the other is to defend my vote against 
inconsistency. I am accused abroad, and what is 
worse, at home too, of being bank-bought. This is 
the charge against every man who dares to exercise 
the least liberality of sentiment or independence of 
opinion, and, to use a familiar phrase, if he does not 
walk the chalks exactly as they are drawn, he is 
everything but an honest man. He is accused of 
bribery, speculation, assassination, corruption, fraud, 
lying, deceit, and indeed every species of meanness. 

"Mr. Speaker, if the world believed everything 
that is said of public characters in America, they must 
consider Congress as a den of petty rogues, and the 
nation as a province of polished pick-pockets. Let 
me, for the amusement of the House, present them 
with a true picture of their character, as portrayed 
by the public journals of the country, those faithful 
registers of all sorts of information, those truthful 
reflectors of public morals, and not less charitable 
memorials of private character. And to this end I 
would ask you to go with me, in your imagination, 
to Europe, to a large reading-room, for instance, in 
London. Suppose a large collection of people as- 
sembled in that place, and, as is not unfrequently the 
case, one more bold than the rest calls the attention 
of the crowd to some interesting extracts from a 
North American paper just from the seat of Govern- 
ment of that great Republic, that land of liberty, of 



36o WILLIAM IFTZHUGH GORDON 

equal laws, of pure institutions, and whose glorious 
traits every Fourth of July celebration 'rings through 
the world with loud applause.' " He reads : 

''Extract froin a Fourth of July oration. 

" 'Here in this land of liberty the oppressed of all 
nations, fleeing from the tyranny of the old world, 
may find an asylum in the purity of our Government, 
the sanctity of its principles, the patriotism of its 
statesmen, and a certain protection in the equality 
of its laws.' 

*'A toast on that occasion. 

" 'The American States — confederated upon prin- 
ciples of liberty, justice and equality, present a sacred 
refuge to all who shall fly from the force, the follies, 
and the frauds of priest-ridden Europe.' 

"The assembly all cry out, 'Glorious people ! 
Magnanimous nation! Happy government!' But 
stop, says the reader, let us sec what is on the other 
side. He reads: 

"Extracts from the President's letter to one of his 
Secretaries. 

" 'The deposits must be removed before Congress 
meets, or the Bank will bribe enough of the mem- 
bers to prevent it.' 

"Extract from the Government press. 

" 'Senators Clay and Webster are the feed law- 
yers of the Bank, and hence, their great exertions in 
its behalf.' 

"From the same. 

" 'Senator Calhoun instigated the assassination of 
the President.' 

"From the same. 

" 'Senator Tipton has valuable lands on the Wa- 
bash, and hence he is trying to get an appropriation 
to improve the navigation of the latter, with a view 
to improve the value of the former.' 

"Extract from a letter of a Washington Corre- 
spondent. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 361 

" 'Senator Webster gets a fee of $5,000 to aid in 
passing a bill to pay off French claims.' 

"From the same. 

" 'Governor Tazewell, of Virginia, pure and im- 
maculate as he is considered, has received $50,000 
from the United States Bank.' 

"From the same. 

" 'Representative A. S. Clayton, who was so violent 
against the Bank, has received an accommodation 
from that institution, and it has glued his tongue to 
the roof of his mouth.' 

" 'Was there ever such a set of cut-throats?' cries 
one. 'What a Botany Bay set of scoundrels!' says 
another. 'Nothing better,' says a third, 'could be 
expected from the descendants of convicts.' 'Oh ! 
the impudent braggarts !' 

"Now, Mr. Speaker, what is the commentary on 
all this? Suppose Mrs. Trollope, or Basil Hall, 
or the Duke of Saxe- Weimar, or some of that tribe 
of lying journalists who are hired to steal reputa- 
tion just because they have no reputation of their 
own, had gone home and said these things of an 
American Congress; what do you imagine the good 
people of the United States would have thought 
about it? Would it not have produced a deep sen- 
sation throughout the whole land? Would not 
every American of high and honorable feelings have 
considered himself grossly scandalized in this male- 
volent attack upon his country's character? Nations 
have characters as well as individuals, and it is the 
sum of individual character that forms a nation's. 
It is utterly impossible for a community of thieves to 
make an honest nation; therefore, every man's char- 
acter is identified with the character of his country. 
When, sir, did any traveler ever, in the worst con- 
dition of his bile, say such things of us as our com- 
monly called well-regulated press? They speak of 
our manners, customs and intelligence in terms of 
derision, and this excites our indignation in a very 



362 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

high degree; but they say but little about our morals, 
and nothing about our honesty; and yet, Mr. Speak- 
er, our own press would make the world believe, 
(and that very world, too, who are looking upon 
us with a jealous, not to say, envious eye, on account 
of our free principles,) that the great fountain-head 
of our legislation, which forms the heart and motive 
power of these great liberal principles, is as corrupt 
as the most varied infamy can make it. Can any- 
thing more delight foreign nations, differing as they 
do from us in their forms of government, and trem- 
bling under the dread of the influence of enlightened 
'freedom upon their coercive institutions, than to 
hear that we are likely to sink under the moral dis- 
temperature of our system? If they believe our own 
testimony, they have a right to form that conclusion; 
and, false as we know it to be, yet we sit here, in- 
different as to the consequences of such pestilential 
slander, tamely acquiescing in every malicious calum- 
ny that emanates from the press, or from correspon- 
dents in or out of this House; and, what Is worse, 
powerless as we are to suppress the mischief, it meets 
with no condemnation from the people, whose own 
country and character are as much affected by It as 
our own; it arouses no portion of their sensibility, 
though It strikes the deadliest blow at the whole 
moral frame of a government that forms the boast 
of a periodical festival and the theme of their per- 
petual admiration." 



CHAPTER XXV 

RETURNS TO THE BAR ON THE CIRCUIT THE 

' ALBEMARLE LAWYERS^ LETTER ON THE IN- 
FLUENCES OF SLAVERY. 

With his retirement from the activities of politics, 
in which he had been continuously engaged since 
1818, Gordon renewed his interest in his profession, 
and in the pursuit of agriculture, a combination of 
occupations not unusual with the Virginia lawyer of 
the period. 

Society at its best then dwelt in the country re- 
gions of Virginia. The cities and towns were of 
comparatively small population, and slave labor 
made the land-owner independent and comfortable. 
The country lawyer had his office in the yard attached 
to his dwelling-house, and here his clients visited him ; 
or else he met them, and was retained in their cases 
at the county-seat on court-day — a monthly occasion 
upon which the citizens gathered together to transact 
their business with each other, to listen to political 
speeches, and to look after their various matters of 
interest, and to attend court. 

Thomas Nelson Page, in his paper on "The Old 
Virginia Lawyer," read before the Virginia State 
Bar Association in 1891, has portrayed with vivid 
touch the lawyer of the old school. "He was a 
notable person," says Page, "a character well worth 
preserving; a constitutional part of our civilization. 
He was the most considerable man of the county. 
The planter, the preacher and the doctor were all men 
of position and consideration, but the old lawyer sur- 
passed them all. Without the wealth of the planter, 
the authority of the clergyman, or the personal affec- 
tion, which was the peculiar possession of the family 
physician, the old lawyer held a position in the county 



364 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

easily first. He was, indeed, as has been aptly said, 
a planter, though he was not that primarily. Pri- 
marily he was lawyer. He managed his farm only 
by the way, 

"In conversation he was brilliant. The whole 
field of law, of literature, history, philosophy, was 
his domain. In all of them he ranged at will, ex- 
hibiting a knowledge, an intelligence, a critical 
faculty, which were astonishing. Though he never 
wrote a line, he was a philosopher, a wit, a poet. 
His knowledge of human nature was profound. It 
was his chief study. He nearly always spoke of 
men in the aggregate with contempt; of the times 
as 'degenerate' ; yet in actual intercourse his conduct 
was at variance with his talk; he treated every one 
with respect .... his fund of anecdote was in- 
exhaustible. He told stories which kept his com- 
panions roaring; he told them with inimitable apt- 
ness and delicious humor; among them he was a boy, 
jovial, rollicking; yet, let but a fool approach, and 
he was dignity itself. To young lawyers he was all 
kindness. He treated them with a courtesy which 
was knightly, with a gentleness and consideration 
which were tenderness. He called them in private 
intercourse by their names, with that flattering famil- 
iarity so pleasing to young men. In public he re- 
ferred to them as 'the learned counsel,' or 'my dis- 
tinguished young brother.' They repaid it by wor- 
shipping him." 

The characterization is quite typical; and with 
differentiations is applicable to Gordon, as to many 
of his professional brethren of the period. It may 
be said of him, however, that no contempt of men 
in the aggregate entered into his mental make-up. 
He believed in the ultimate sanity and integrity of 
the people, with a faith as profound as ever imbued 
Mr. Jefferson in the days of his extremest democracy. 

"Riding the circuit," in the practice of law, was 
an incident of the profession in those days before the 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 365 

advent of the railroads. William Wirt and Dabney 
Carr rode the circuit together, out of Albemarle, 
into the "free State of Fluvanna," when they were 
young men; and prophesied each the future of the 
other as they jogged along the red clay roads. Mr. 
William Green, the most erudite and scholarly law- 
3'er of his age, and a contemporary of Gordon's, 
as were Wirt and Carr, on his circuit-riding always 
took with him in his saddle-bags or his great-coat 
pocket a copy of some classic Greek or Latin author. 
Though the associations, which this vogue of travel- 
ing the circuit created, were frequently, during the re- 
cesses of the court, cemented by a conviviality that 
was not unusual in other contemporaneous societies, 
yet the large majority of the country lawyers of the 
time practised their profession with serious purpose 
and noble achievement, and by no means with the 
dissipation often attributed to them. 

Gordon, whose home at Edgeworth was conven- 
iently situated near the junction of the three counties 
of Albemarle, Orange, and Louisa, and within easy- 
reaching distance of the county of Fluvanna, was a 
regular practitioner In the courts of each of them. 
Although in his later years, from the inbred habit 
that comes inevitably to most lawyers who continue 
long in active politics, he had ceased to be such a 
close and careful student of text-books and of cases 
as he had been in his earlier practice; yet the great 
principles, which constitute the basis of the law, had 
been so deeply grounded in him in his earlier exper- 
ience that they remained with him; while they had 
been continually revived and refreshed by his work 
during all his legislative career, through his frequent 
association and contact with law and lawyers in his 
services upon the Judiciary committees of the House 
of Delegates and of the national House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

The overwhelming mass of decisions and of legal 
essays and texts, which now afford to the practitioner 



366 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

cases for and against nearly every legal proposition 
that may be suggested, and contribute to make of the 
highly successful lawyer of to-day almost necessarily 
a specialist, on account of the limit Imposed on human 
endurance by finite time, were not essential to the 
accomplished practitioner of Gordon's day. He ar- 
gued his cases from fundamental principles. Melius 
est petere fontes qiiam sectari rivulos, was a not in- 
frequent maxim of his able bar; — and he made but 
sparse and limited citation of authority. His appeal 
was to the judicial intelligence which applied sound 
reasons to basic foundations, and reached conclusions 
which were as certain and correct as any established 
upon innumerable cases by unnumbered judges. 
With this method of presentation Gordon was strong 
and persuasive in all the courts in which he practised; 
and the records of these courts attest the frequency 
of his employment in important litigation, and the 
success with which it was conducted by him. As an 
advocate in the trial of jury causes, he was eminently 
distinguished; and until, with the approach of old 
age, he withdrew from active practice, there were 
comparatively few litigated common law cases of 
importance, or criminal cases of any magnitude in his 
judicial circuit, in which he did not appear. That 
he maintained himself among his competitors of the 
period is no slight indication of his knowledge, his 
ability, and his skill; for the bar of his vicinage 
ranked then, as it ranked before, and has ranked 
since, as among the ablest in a State, where the pro- 
fession has, through the history of both Colony and 
Commonwealth, attracted the pursuit of the acutest 
and most highly trained intellects. 

At his home bar in Albemarle, and of his own 
generation, the roster of lawyers bore the names of 
Philip Pendleton Barbour, Hugh Nelson, John S. 
Barbour, Valentine W. Southall, Richard H. Field, 
Briscoe G. Baldwin, James Barbour, William Cabell 
Rives, Chapman Johnson, Thomas Walker Gilmer, 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 367 

and Nicholas P. Trist. Some of these men were resi- 
dents of other counties; but they were all active prac- 
titioners in the Albemarle courts, and they were all 
highly distinguished in their profession. 

Of the junior bar who practised in the county were 
Thomas J. Michie, Lucian Minor, William B. Nap- 
ton, Egbert R. Watson, Hugh A. Garland, Peachy 
R. Grattan, John W. Stevenson, John B. Minor, 
Shelton F, Leake, Allen B. Magruder, George Wythe 
Randolph, William J. Robertson and Roger A. Pryor. 

The membership of the Albemarle bar from 1809, 
when Gordon first quailfied to practise in the courts 
of the county, to 1858, the year of his death, consti- 
tutes a shining bede-roU of illustrious names in the 
story of the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

Brief mention of many of these men has been made 
in preceding chapters. Notable among them on the 
political arena of Gordon's period was Nicholas P. 
Trist, who having studied law under Mr. Jefferson, 
was private secretary to President Jackson, and later 
became United States Consul at Havana. He was 
Assistant Secretary of State of the United States in 
1845; ^^^^ negotiated the treaty of Guadaloupe Hi- 
dilgo as Peace Commissioner to Mexico in 1848. 

William Green of Culpeper, Gordon's junior by 
some twenty years, was known as the most learned 
lawyer of his day, not only in Virginia but in the 
United States; and the fame of his erudition ex- 
tended to England. Green and Gordon frequently 
met each other in the trial of cases. Mr. John Ran- 
dolph Tucker was accustomed to tell, with an inimi- 
table humor, a story of the discussion, between these 
two, of Shakespeare's legal knowledge as illustrated 
in the character of Portia in "The Merchant of 
Venice." It is here set down as narrated by Mr. 
Tucker in an address before the Bar Association of 
the City of Richmond in the eighties : 

"At the country tavern at Orange Court House," 
said Mr. Tucker, "the judge (Field) and the bar 



368 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

assembled In the evening after the labors of the day 
were over, and professional, public, historic and liter- 
ary matters were discussed with clever and playful 
criticism, in which sharp blows were given and re- 
ceived without temper or offence. Three lawyers 
were there who took part in the exercise of debate, — 
the judge and the remainder of the bar as auditors, — 
General Gordon, William Green and Alexander R. 
Holladay. General Gordon admired and was better 
read in Shakespeare than in the works of my Lord 
Coke. On this occasion he was dilating (not dilut- 
ing, as a wag once said of another speaker) on the 
marvellous genius of the great poet. He rose (he 
generally did in conversation, when his talk became 
something of a speech), and held the floor without 
dispute, and not under the prior rule. He permitted 
questions from the audience, which only sharpened 
his wit and gave spirit to his eloquence. 

"Green and Gordon were great friends and mutual 
admirers. Each admired in the other what he did 
not possess. Gordon dreaded Green's nice point of 
law; Green feared Gordon's eloquence before the 
jury. Hence their tactics, when opposed, were di- 
verse. Gordon strove to brush away Green's ob- 
structive legal objections, while Green sturdily inter- 
posed them. 'For Heaven's sake?' cried Gordon 
one day, 'let us get to the jury.' 'No,' said Green, 
'for if we do, my case is lost' 

"On the occasion under discussion, Gordon spoke 
of the myriad-minded Shakespeare, whose knowledge 
of the human heart was as if he had made it; that 
he seemed to know all human vocations, as if he were 
a master-workmen in it, and that in a word, nil 
tetigit quod non ornavit. 

"At this point Green, who was quietly walking up 
and down the room, listening with genuine interest to 
the eulogy on Shakespeare, interposed with the re- 
mark : 

" 'Well, General, I am not disposed to depreciate 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 369 

your beautiful tribute to the immortal bard; but it is 
due to loyalty to our profession to affirm with confi- 
dence, what I am ready to maintain before the court, 
that whatever he knew of other vocations, he was not 
even a tyro in the scene of jurisprudence.' 

"Gordon (with emphatic contempt) : 'Well, I 
suppose he could hardly compete with a county court 
lawyer in the trial of a petty case before the County 
Court of Orange. But I challenge your proof.' 

"Green: 'In answer to your challenge, I allege he 
showed utter Ignorance of the simplest maxims of 
law in the decision of the case. In re Shylock.' 

"Gordon: 'Who the devil ever heard it called /;/ 
re Shylockr 

"Green: 'I know no other way to cite it; but I 
affirm the decision was utterly absurd.' 

"Gordon: 'No doubt It is unintelligible to the pet- 
tifoggers who practise In the county courts. Do you 
propose to drag down the winged Pegasus of Shake- 
speare's genius, and drive him to the tumbril-cart of 
your petty county court?' 

" 'Green (not offended at this playful badinage) : 
'Well, General, notwithstanding your objurgatory ex- 
pressions, I proceed to show that the judgment was 
wrong.' Green (now adopting the seml-Socratic 
method, which Gordon did not like) proceeded: 

" 'You admit that when A. grants anything to B. 
the law impjies with It the grant of all that Is neces- 
sary to the enjoyment of the thing granted. You 
concede that.^' 

"Gordon: 'No, I'll be hanged If I do. But for 
the sake of argument, I admit It.' 

"Green: 'Therefore, when Antonio granted to 
Shylock a pound of flesh to be taken from about the 
heart, the law Implied that so much blood was granted 
with the flesh as must be shed In order to the legal 
possession of the pound of flesh granted. But Mis- 
tress Justice Portia held that he could not take the 
24 



370 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

flesh, because blood would be shed in doing so, which 
blood was not granted : — contrary to the simplest 
maxims of the horn-books of the law. Hence I say, 
Shakespeare knew nothing of law.' 

"The General was not prepared to meet this nice 
objection, and emptied the vials of his playful wrath 
upon his learned friend for questioning Mistress Por- 
tia's judgment. 

"At this point Mr. Holladay intervened : 

" 'But, Mr. Green, may not the decision be vin- 
dicated on the old case of Collins vs. Blanton? This 
was not a case of grant. It was an executory, not an 
executed contract. A contract to take flesh and blood 
from the heart of a man involved his life; it was a 
contract against law and for crime. It was void, and 
could not be enforced.' 

"Gordon (exultant) : 'Now, Mr. Critic, what 
have you to say to that?' 

"Green (with all the gravity of a barrister in the 
appellate court) : 'The point made by Mr. Holladay 
is very ingenious. I will look to see if the authorities 
sustain it. But, General, if well taken, it leaves my 
contention untouched; for as Mistress Justice Portia 
based her decision on the ground I objected to, and 
did not assign as a reason for it that offered by Alex- 
ander Holladay, I insist that Shakespeare may have 
decided rightly, but for a wrong reason, and there- 
fore, was no lawyer.' 

"The discussion closed with merry laughter, and 
the parties retired to bed, with mutual feelings of 
admiration and affection,"* 

Amid the quiet of his professional pursuits and of 
the duties incident to his life as a planter, Gordon 
continued to maintain an abiding interest in the great 
national political drama which was so rapidly and 
inevitably approaching its conclusion. One of his 

* This story is narrated in a Biography of William Green, in 
"Great American Lawyers," Vol. 5, published by The John C. 
Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1907-1909. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 371 

sons, a young man of twenty-six, had taken up his 
residence in Alexandria, Virginia, and was the editor 
of a daily newspaper then published in that town, the 
Alexandria Standard. To him Gordon wrote in 
September, 1854, as follows: 

"Your mother and myself take great interest in 
your paper. It is always the first read, and she 
files away every one of them. Your disquisitions on 
slavery are well written, and afford just views of the 
institution. But in discussing it, do not give offence 
to the non-slaveholding States, as you lash the fac- 
tions that disgrace them. In the dearth of political 
matter the subject is well chosen; and its discussion, 
in a proper tone and temper, may do much good by 
sustaining the rights of the South, and enlightening 
the ignorance and prejudices of the non-slaveholding 
States. Indeed it is a subject that may well employ 
the thoughts of the profoundest statesmen as an 
interesting constitution of civilized society nev/ to the 
history of the world. If I mistake not, it is the first 
instance in history of the existence of African slavery 
under republican institutions, of which we have an 
experience. Since the Declaration of Independence, 
and during our whole colonial history, we have also a 
contrasted experience of nearly an equal number of 
slaveholding and non-slaveholding States, under the 
same general government, and similar State govern- 
ments, of the white race, or the homo Europaeiis 
sapiens. I see you have glanced at the side of the 
picture which has never been thoroughly examined — 
the influence of the institution on the moral and social 
character of the white race. It is a spacious and un- 
trodden field, the correct delineation of which might 
well employ the highest intellects of the wise and ex- 
perienced. I am decidedly of the opinion that no 
period of human history affords more or higher ex- 
amples of virtuous and truly great men than that of 
the slave-holding States from our Revolution to the 
present time — from Washington to Calhoun. What 



372 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

other region can boast of such men as Henry and 
Mason, — as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, — as Jack- 
son, and Clay and Randolph, — with the host of 
men of the present day, whose reputation time is to 
finish and consecrate ? Where can be found wiser and 
braver men, or purer and more virtuous women; and 
if Vv'c mount from individual character to that of com- 
munities, where can be found an act among the gov- 
ernments of the world, ancient or modern, to compare 
with the munificent bestowal of our Northwestern 
empire to the Confederate States, for the purpose of 
general liberty? Hold up to the abolitionists of Old 
England and New England the statue of Washing- 
ton, and the deed of cession ornamented with the 
portrait of George Rogers Clark, our Virginia Han- 
nibal; and bid them be silent!" 



CHAPTER XXVI 

LETTERS TO HIS WIFE ANECDOTES DEATH 

Gordon's personal characteristics of domesticity 
and of strong family affection are indicated in the let- 
ters written to his wife during his public career. It 
was always a struggle with him to forego the kindlier 
life of his plantation, and the pleasure of his family 
associations, for the frequent absences which his poli- 
tical duties necessitated. There was no lack of sin- 
cerity in his statement to Mrs. Gordon, in May, 
1834, in one of his letters, v/hen he learned of the 
political opposition which was manifesting itself at 
home, that he should be satisfied to retire from office. 

"In regard to the movement in my district," he 
wrote, "I am very indifferent personally. Whenever 
the people think I have abandoned their interests, or 
that they can be more ably represented, I am willing 
to retire. I have asked nothing for myself. I have 
no aspirations beyond the wishes of my constituents. 
Yet there are tides in the affairs of men, and per- 
haps the flood of mine has passed. If so, I shall 
glide down the ebb-tide into the haven of domestic 
peace, where the best of wives and dearest of off- 
spring have been too long neglected." 

In February, 1830, soon after his arrival in Wash- 
ington to enter upon his duties as a representative, he 
wrote to Mrs. Gordon : 

"I think I must make some arrangement to bring 
you to Washington, or that I shall not remain a 
member of Congress long. 

"I saw Mrs. Randolph and two of her daughters 
some evenings ago at Mr. VanBuren's. I have sent 
your father a parcel of wheat from Malaga, procured 
by one of our consuls. It is highly spoken of, but I 
apprehend it will not do to seed it until the fall. 



374 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

"I have made an interesting acquaintance with a 
lady from Baltimore, who lives with Colonel Bar- 
bour's mess, and is one of the family of General Sam 
Smith. She is the counterpart of cousin Betsey 
Michie, but somewhat older. She is a very literary 
lady both in prose and poetry; and having been here 
each session of Congress for more than twenty years, 
is acquainted with all the great men and events that 
have characterized the age. She is very frank in her 
manners and conversation, and attracts general cour- 
tesy from her extensive acquirements and accurate 
observation. Colonel Barbour and Mrs. Barbour 
tell me that she is pleased with me; and I, on my 
part, think her one of the best informed ladies I have 
seen. 

"But, after all, nothing affords me any real con- 
solation for separation from you and my dear chil- 
dren; and I can say very candidly to you that, after 
having seen many scenes, and mingled in circles cal- 
culated to gratify my curiosity, I have met with no 
lady equal to you, and nothing that can ever compare 
with home happiness for a moment." 

While alv/ays deeply absorbed in his legislative 
duties, or in the politics incident to them, in his let- 
ters to his wife, he did not forget to tell her of her 
friends whom he met, or to relate to her such hap- 
penings as he thought might interest her. Again in 
February, 1830, he wrote : 

"I visited Mrs. Randolph a few days after I wrote 
you last. She and her family are well. She seems 
to be comfortably fixed, and the establishment showed 
much of taste in all that I observed. She seems a 
little pensive, and says that she feels some of the pains 
of an exile." 

In April of the same year he wrote : 

"I, like you, am welcoming the flight of time. I 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 375 

would give him double wings, for a while, if the 
transformation were in my power. I am glad to hear 
that Hannah has also determined to take lessons in 
French. The diversity of character between her and 
Maria, I hope, will be a source of mutual improve- 
ment and excellence in both. I am very sure they 
will be more accomplished In their domestic education 
than In any other way. The frippery of fashion, and 
the little polish that much company can give will soon 
enough be acquired by them. 

'T do not expect to see a very fine garden on my 
return; but I am Impatient to go back to the bosom 
of my family and of nature. I am tired of men and 
politics for a season. 

"I have got Byron's 'Life,' by Moore. It is an 
amusing book, but is licentious and wicked in many 
passages. 

"Mrs. Coolidge Is in Washington. I have not yet 
seen her, but visited Mrs. Randolph on Sunday last." 

On the 3d of May, 1830, he said in a letter to his 
wife: 

"I went on the ist of May to an exhibition, which 
they have here annually, of an assemblage of little 
girls and boys, the girls decorated with flowers of 
every description, and one of them crowned as Queen 
of May. I dare say, there were hundreds of them, 
and a more Interesting sight I have not seen. Some 
of the little things seemed quite conscious of the at- 
tention they attracted." 

Once more the note of a longing for green fields, 
and his own household gods, appears In his letter of 
May loth, 1830: 

"I hope before George and Charles are old enough 
to learn their books, that I may be a domestic man 
and can aid you in their Instruction. I much fear now 



376 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

that we shall not rise until the 24th — perhaps not 
then; but I thank God we cannot be kept much 
longer. I never was so restless and anxious to get 
home. The fine weather, and everything out of 
doors, is so contrasted with the confinement and 
wrangling within, that I am tired almost past endur- 
ance." 

In the December following he was again in Wash- 
ington; and on the 20th wrote to Mrs. Gordon: 

"I am delighted to hear that you and the children 
are well. This constitutes my first happiness. Mr. 
Patton has just returned from Fredericksburg with 
Mrs. Patton and Miss Lightfoct. I wrote you that I 
was at Mrs. Peyton's, but did not tell you of the mess. 
We have Mr. Tazewell, Mr. White, Senator from 
Tennessee, the Senator from North Carolina, Mr. 
Ellis from Mississippi, and many others — all Jackson 
men. The house is as genteelly kept as any in the 
city. 

"I am pleased to hear my wheat will be at length 
delivered. My health is very good. I had hoped to 
see you at Christmas, but the roads are next to im- 
passable, and the mail is carried on horseback or in 
carts. I received my trunk all safe. 

"I have had a present of some Turkish tobacco 
seed, with some muskmelon seed from the same coun- 
try. The tobacco is said to be the best for smoking. 
I enclose it to you, and wish it divided with your 
father. Captain Lindsay, Lewis Walker and Dr. 
Page, you retaining a small quantity for an experi- 
ment at home. 

"I also enclose you two alphabets on horn for 
George and Charles. I am impatient that the time 
should arrive when I shall meet you all again. I hope 
James will persevere in his mathematics. It is a 
science so intellectual and conducive to correct think- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 377 

ing in all other acquisitions, that I am particularly 
anxious he should be proficient in it." 

Again in January : 

"I accidentally found yesterday, in a shop where 
I went to buy tobacco, some small, pretty hoes, about 
the size of your hand. I bought two for George and 
Charles to work their garden with. They are too 
heavy to frank; so I must keep them till I see you." 
And again in February: "I wish to thank you for 
your last letter and to congratulate you on the near 
approach of the 4th of March, when I can leave this 
place. I fear the continued bad weather will make 
the roads so heavy that no other mode of traveling 
except on horseback will be practicable." 

The following is a letter written from Washington 
in January, 1833, to one of his sons, then a lad at 
home: 

"My dear Son: I received your letter with much 
pleasure, and am gratified with the account you give 
me of the affairs on the plantation. Such information 
I prize very much, because no one else gives me those 
details about the horses, stock, and work done on the 
place but yourself. Continue to write to me of what- 
ever strikes your own mind as of interest on the farm. 
How does the filly that Mr. Baughn was breaking 
turnout? Will she make a good riding mare? The 
weather is now very cold, and I fear the lambs will 
suffer, as their dams can get very little food in the 
fields. Write me how much ploughing has been done, 
and how the wheat looks. 

"Whilst I encourage you to take an interest in 
these matters of business, you must not neglect the 
improvement of your mind. I hope you will en- 
deavor to improve yourself very much this year, and 
be a credit to yourself and to your brother as your 



378 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

instructor. Tell William I received his letter, and 
will write to him and Maria in a few days. Give my 
love to all the family, and my respects to all my 
friends. 

"Your affectionate Father." 

His personal interest in his family, no less than 
the good humor of his women-kind in submitting to 
have their headgear selected by a mere man, is evi- 
denced in the following letter, written in May, 1834: 

"I send by the stage, under the care of Mr. Daniel 
Slaughter, a bandbox containing three bonnets for 
the girls, and yourself, and some articles which I pur- 
chased at an Orphans' Fair. I have great satisfaction 
in hearing of the good health of the family, but am 
distressed that you continue weak. We had a fine 
rain here last night. I hope it has extended to you. 
I can give you no idea when the session will close. 
I never was so anxious to see you all. 

"We are dragging on here in a confused and inde- 
cisive manner. Our session is renewed to-day, and 
our hall decorated with matting instead of carpeting. 

"Mr. Stevenson is at length nominated as Minis- 
ter to England. What his fate will be in the Senate 
I can't tell." 

A letter from Mrs. Gordon to her husband in 
Washington in December, 1834, gives an idea of the 
life at Edgeworth, and in the neighborhood, at that 
time. She wrote : 

"I have not waited on Mrs. A. Rives, but not from 
any party feeling. Dining party after dining party 
has filled up the time since you left us. I have only 
joined them on one occasion, and the constant succes- 
sion of visits the girls have had has left me very 
solitary. Churchill manifests great pleasure at see- 
ing the young ladies, fixes himself in the room with 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 379 

them, and never appears to think of any other amuse- 
ment as long as he can attract their notice. We ex- 
pected ten or a dozen merry girls to supper night 
before last. A fine fire was made in your little read- 
ing room, and the sofa fixed as it was when you were 
at home. Churchill followed me into the room, and 
asked me if it did not look like Papa and Miss Mary 
and Miss Sarah ought to be sitting there. The girls 
came, and I never saw a happier party than they 
seemed to be without even a single beau to admire 
them. 

"Yesterday morning they insisted I must go with 
them to Springfield, where they were all to dine. 
They brought me home in the evening; and all the 
party went on to Mrs. Page's. To-day they dine with 
Mrs. Frank Nelson at Belvoir, and on Monday they 
are going to Cousin James Lindsay's again. Mr. 
Rives gave them a dinner last Thursday." 

One of his letters to Mrs. Gordon indicates that 
in spite of slaves and slavery "the servant-question" 
was a burning one even then in Virginia. "I have 
seen Mrs. Coolidge," he wrote, "and she requests to 
be particularly mentioned to you and all her friends 
in our neighborhood. I got leave of her to tell you 
that you had no idea of the trouble servants can give 
a mistress, unless you had some experience in Boston, 
and that all which Virginia mistresses suffer in that 
way is moderation compared with the insolence and 
worthlessness of their menials. 

"She is in good health, and is a fine-looking lady. 
Mrs. Randolph directs me always to send her regards 
to you and all. 

"Colonel P. P. Barbour has been ill, but is much 
better and is out of danger. I am pleased to hear 
that you have been visited by Governor Barbour and 
Mrs. Barbour. I shall enjoy their society when I 
return to Albemarle. I am very weary of Wash- 
ington," 



38o WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Himself an orator of moving power, oratory 
charmed him, as music charms the musician. Web- 
ster's style never seemed to appeal to him. Perhaps 
this was partly because he did not admire the man. 
But in Clay's persuasive eloquence, and especially in 
the attraction of his voice, which he was accustomed 
to say was compelling, he took the greatest delight. 
He instanced its influence upon himself when, having 
visited the Senate Chamber, he was on the point of 
departing, and was spell-bound by the marvelous 
sweetness and sonorousness of the Kentuckian's "Mr. 
President," as he arose to address the Senate. Its 
carrying power seemed to him as wonderful as its 
melody; and it might well be described, as Bulwer 
described that of Daniel O'Connell, when he ad- 
dressed the immense concourse, "walled by wide air 
and roofed by boundless heaven," on August 15, 
1843, o^ the Hill of Tara. Some historians, 
informed by eye-witnesses, put the number of that 
great audience as high as five hundred thousand; and 
careful and unsympathetic witnesses, writes Justin 
McCarthy, in his "History of Our Own Times," 
say that a quarter of a million people must have been 
present. Bulwer, himself an auditor of O'Connell's 
speech, describes in his poem, "St. Stephen's," the 
effect of O'Connell's voice : 

"And as I thought, rose the sonorous swell 
As from some church tower swings the silvery bell; 
Aloft and clear from airy tide to tide 
It glided easy as a bird may glide. 
To the last verge of that vast audience sent, 
It played with each wild passion as it went ; 
Now stirred the uproar, — now the murmur stilled. 
And sobs or laughter answered as it willed. 
Then did I know what spells of infinite choice 
To rouse or lull has the sweet human voice. 
Then did I learn to seize the sudden clue 
To the grand troublous life antique, — to view. 
Under the rock-stand of Demosthenes, 
Unstable Athens heave her noisy seas." 

It was this peculiar quality of charm in the voice 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 381 

of Henry Clay that lured Randolph of Roanoke, ap- 
proachhig his mortal end, and in the last stage of 
consumption, to stop in Washington, on his way to 
Philadelphia, in search of medical aid, and to cause 
himself to be carried to the Senate Chamber, At 
the moment of his arrival. Clay took the floor to ad- 
dress the Senate. Randolph, too weak to stand, and 
gazing towards his old enemy, with whom he had 
fought the duel over "Blifil and Black George," said: 
"I came here to hear that voice once more." 

As is frequently the case with men of imagination, 
Gordon possessed a sense of humor, which often 
manifested itself in his association with those about 
him. His devotion to his wife did not prevent his 
sometimes greatly enjoying a joke at her expense; 
and one which highly delighted him was a remark 
made to her at her table by a visitor to whom she 
was apologizing, as she occasionally did, that the 
meal was not such a one as she might have wished to 
serve her guest. Gordon's idea of hospitality was to 
give the guest what was given to the family, and that 
what was good enough for the family was good 
enough for the casual visitor. On this occasion the 
visitor was Mr. King, who had married one of his 
cousins, and resided in the neighborhood. The but- 
ter on the table happened to be somewhat reduced by 
the earlier onslaughts of the numerous children of 
the household; and Mrs. Gordon apologized to Mr. 
King for the small size of the "pat" on the plate, in- 
sisting that he should take some, and that he should 
not "be afraid of it." 

"Thank you, madam," replied King, with a grim 
smile which delighted his host, and tended to the dis- 
comfiture of his hostess, as he helped himself to half 
the contents of the dish. "It isn't big enough to scare 
anybody!" 

His last local public appearance was in a campaign 
in Albemarle in 1849. A State law had been enacted 
in 18 18 which provided that commissioners should 



382 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

be appointed in every county to provide at the public 
expense for the education of the children of families 
who were otherwise unable to educate them. The 
system worked well in Albemarle, as elsewhere in the 
State, for many years. Under it the private schools 
and classical academies flourished; and Gordon 
was accustomed to emphasize the success of the 
existing educational scheme by saying that he had 
never known of a child who desired, or whose parents 
desired an education for it, who had failed to find 
the opportunity in Virginia of obtaining it. About 
1845, however, the General Assembly provided for 
the introduction of a free-school system, under a 
local-option statute. An election was called in Albe- 
marle to determine the question of the adoption of a 
general public free-school system in the county; and 
what the local historian calls "a memorable debate" 
took place over it. "Dr. Wm. H. McGuffey, of the 
University," writes Woods, in his "History of Albe- 
marle County," "took the stump in behalf of free 
schools, and General William F. Gordon and Colonel 
T. J. Randolph against them. By the popular vote it 
was decided that the time for public schools had not 
yet come." 

Gordon antagonized the proposition to establish In 
the county a free-school system, under this local- 
option statute, because he thought it included features 
that were not calculated to advance education, or to 
be of public benefit, and because the existing law had 
proven sufficient. Among those who espoused the 
other side, as stated, was Dr. McGuffey, the famous 
author of McGuffey's "Eclectic" readers and spellers, 
which were once very familiar to the youth of the 
country. Dr. McGuffey was at that time professor 
of Moral Philosophy In the University of Virginia. 
In a discussion of the question, in a public debate be- 
tween the two, Gordon suggested that the people of 
Albemarle County should not take their views of 
primary education from "an Ohio Yankee," alluding 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 383 

humorously to the Professor's place of residence at 
the time of his election to the chair which he then 
held in the University. McGuffey interrupted, pro- 
testing that he was not "a Yankee," but that his 
father was a Scotchman; adding in his embarrass- 
ment that his "mother was an Irishman." This 
Hibernicism was greeted with shouts of laughter 
from the audience, which increased when Gordon 
commented, with mischievous humor, but with a very 
serious face, that he did not know what to think of a 
man of Dr. McGuffey's reputation venturing to speak 
so disrespectfully of his mother. 

The Doctor's speech was spoiled and he did not 
continue long in the contest, which was decided by 
the voters in favor of the proposition assumed by 
Gordon and Jefferson's grandson. Colonel Randolph. 

In his own home, and by his fireside, Gordon's 
qualities of an affectionate husband and father, and 
of a hospitable and entertaining host, shone with a 
benignant light; and for the members of his house- 
hold, no less than for the guests who thronged 
his home, his conversational powers, and his varied 
experiences of men and events proved of constant 
and unfailing charm. His sons and daughters alike, 
under the inspiration of his teachings, acquired no 
inconsiderable knowledge of the political history of 
the country, and of the principles of its political 
parties. 

To one of these sons, who did not always agree 
with him upon public issues, and not infrequently 
gave his disagreement practical effect by his vote, 
Gordon once said: 

"Why is it that you so frequently oppose me and 
your brothers in your political action?" 

"Because, sir," was the answer, "you have always 
taught us to think for ourselves, and I have done so," 

"I have no fault to find with you, my son," his 
father said. "You have done right." 

His love of nature and of a country life, exhibited 



384 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

in the letters that are quoted in this chapter, seemed 
to increase and expand as he grew older. He had 
come of a race of men, none of whom in the genera- 
tions through which they have been traced, had ever 
lived in a town or a city. The agricultural existence 
appealed to him, as it did to Mr. Jefferson, as more 
conducive than any other, not only to the purity and 
integrity of society, but to the preservation of institu- 
tional liberty. He anticipated the development and 
growth of cities in America as dangerous to republi- 
can government, and never hesitated to express his 
dislike to aggregations of "bricks and mortar." 

He continued throughout his life a student of let- 
ters, and of political philosophy and history; and 
derived therefrom that solace and comforting com- 
panionship that those know who enjoy the friendship 
of books. As Shakespeare appealed to his literary 
sense beyond all other English authors, so he found 
in the writings of Burke, as did Randolph of 
Roanoke, a philosophy of political government which 
touched more nearly and subtly than any other his 
innate sense of liberty. Among the books in his 
library which he especially prized for its associations, 
and profitably studied for its wisdom and worth, was 
a work in three volumes, entitled "Political Disquisi- 
tions, or an Enquiry Into Public Errors, Defects and 
Abuses, by J. Burgh, Gentleman." "An American 
edition of Burgh," says Mr. Hugh Blair Grigsby, in 
his "Virginia Convention of 1776," "had appeared 
the year before, and it was a favorite book with all 
our early statesmen. Mr. Jefferson delighted to 
praise it." Gordon's copy was of this edition of 
1775, and had belonged to Mann Page, whose auto- 
graph it bore. Page had given it to Mr. Jefferson, 
who in turn presented it to his younger friend and 
follower. 

With the religious inclination of most contempla- 
tive and thoughtful minds, and with a profound 
recognition of the value of Christianity not only to 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 385 

the individual, but to society, he yet never became a 
church-member. When once reproached with this 
fact, he said : 

"I have a brother who is a Baptist minister. My 
two sisters are the most pious Presbyterians I have 
ever known. My wife is a devout EpiscopaHan. I 
am cathoHc in my views of religion, and embrace 
them all." 

The war-clouds, whose lightnings he had long seen 
flashing afar, were gathering ominously to their tre- 
mendous storm, when he departed, in the full and 
happy possession of all his faculties, and of all "that 
which should accompany old age, as honor, love, 
obedience, troops of friends." 

He died suddenly of an affection of the heart, on 
the 28th day of August, 1858, at his home at Edge- 
worth; and was buried in the family burying-ground 
of the Lindsays and Gordons at Springfield. 



25 



CHAPTER XXVII 

CONCLUSION 

Gordon's name, like that of many of his prominent 
contemporaries, does not appear In the biographical 
dictionaries; and even so soon after the period of his 
public achievements as the year in which he died — 
thus quickly do the events of unrecorded history fade 
away and are gone — those who knew him as having 
had a career of distinctive civic performance above 
the mass of his fellowmen, had forgotten the details 
of his work. 

The Richmond Enquirer said of him, after he 
died: 

"In the death of this gentleman Virginia has lost 
another of that noble list of sons for which she was 
distinguished in the early days of her renown. 

"He died very suddenly on the morning of the 
28th Instant, in the seventy-second year of his age. 

"It was the fortune of General Gordon to be 
prominently connected with many interesting events 
during his life, and his memory will be united with 
the history of this Commonwealth in much that re- 
lates to her future glory. 

"The establishment of the University of Virginia 
on a permanent basis was an object which engaged 
much of the attention of Mr. Jefferson In the latter 
part of his life. General Gordon was his personal 
and political friend, and being one of the representa- 
tives of the county of Albemarle in the House of 
Delegates of Virginia, was chosen by Mr. Jefferson 
as a leading patron of the bill before the House. 

"He contributed as much, if not more, than any 
other man to the success of all the measures resulting 
in the establishment of that institution, which is now 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 387 

not only the pride of Virginia, but the most popular 
literary institution in all the Southern States. 

"He represented his county many years; and when 
a revisal of the constitution of the State was deter- 
mined on, he was elected to the Convention of 1830, 
acknowledged to be the ablest body of men which 
ever assembled in this country, or perhaps any other; 
containing as it did Madison, Monroe, Marshall, 
Randolph, Tazewell, Leigh, Johnson, Stanard, and 
a host of others very little inferior to them. The 
great question which agitated that large mass of col- 
lected talent was whether the future representation 
of the State should be based on property, as it was 
originally, or on population. It was a mighty 
struggle between giant intellects over what was sup- 
posed to be the vital interests of the Commonwealth ; 
and was protracted to great length — the east gener- 
ally contending for the continuance of the existing 
basis, and the west urging that numbers was the 
proper one. 

"In this state of things General Gordon offered a 
compromise, commonly known as 'the Mixed Basis,' 
having regard to population and taxation combined. 
His proposition was adopted, and closed that exciting 
controversy which at one time threatened to divide 
the State. 

"He was elected to Congress from the Albemarle 
district during the administration of General Jackson, 
and though a warm political friend, he disregarded 
the strong party feelings which in common with many 
of the best men of the day he entertained, and in his 
greater devotion to the interests of the South he took 
sides with the State of South Carolina, and without 
reserve opposed General Jackson's famous proclama- 
tion and force-bill. 

"General Gordon may be considered the father of 
the great system of gold and silver currency for the 
General Government. During his services in Con- 
gress in the administration of General Jackson he in- 



388 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

troduced a bill to have all the revenues of the govern- 
ment collected in gold and silver. The details of this 
bill are not recollected; but it was the first public sug- 
gestion of that remedy for the evils of a redundant 
paper currency. 

"General Gordon was not only distinguished for 
the prominent position he held among the leading 
politicians of his day, but he held high rank at the 
bar. He was a contemporary of Richard Morris and 
Philip P. Barbour, and often encountered them. 
Though not so profound a lawyer as Barbour, he 
was greatly his superior as an advocate. His ready 
eloquence, combined with his chivalrous character and 
generous feelings, made him a most formidable com- 
petitor before the jury to any lawyer. Being a man 
of ardent and sensitive feelings, he knew how to enlist 
the feelings of those he addressed. 

"High as General Gordon stood as a public man, he 
was the more elevated as a private man above the 
mass of his followers. To say that he was a Virginia 
gentleman of the old school is not enough. No man 
who ever lived had a nicer sense of personal honor 
and integrity; nor did any practice them with 
stricter fidelity. He could not be surprised or 
tempted into the commission of the slightest act un- 
worthy of a man of refined honor and purity. He 
was generous and liberal almost to a fault. Indeed 
few men possessed qualities of head and heart com- 
bined, better calculated to command respect and af- 
fection than General Wililam F. Gordon from all 
who knew him." 

The following article was published about the 
same time in The South, a Virginia newspaper then 
edited by the Hon. Roger A. Pryor, who after the 
War between the States achieved eminence as a law- 
yer and jurist of New York City: 

"We regret to announce the death of this distin- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 389 

guished citizen. He expired on the 28th instant at his 
residence in Albemarle. He was long an influential 
member of the State Legislature. He served only 
one (three) terms in Congress, but that sufficed to 
give him an historic name, for he had the honor of 
proposing the Sub-Treasury system. At his death he 
held the commission of major-general in the militia 
of Virginia. A braver, truer, more generous heart 
never beat in any man's bosom than glowed In the 
breast of William F. Gordon." 

Another contemporary writer, Crosby, said of 
him: 

"In early life General Gordon attained a high 
position in the State; and although he had not par- 
ticipated in the strife of politics for many years past, 
yet to the day of his death he was esteemed among 
the worthiest of the Democratic leaders. He was a 
rigid disciple of the State-Rights school, and an in- 
flexible champion of the rights of the South. A 
fervid oratory was his most characteristic talent; an 
incorruptible integrity his distinguishing virtue. In 
>the relations of private life he commanded universal 
respect; and among his more Intimate friends he 
was regarded with a warm and constant affection." 

In an address on "Virginia Judges and Jurists," 
dehvered February 7, 1895, at a banquet to the 
Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, at Richmond, 
Mr. John Randolph Tucker, himself a distinguished 
and able exponent of Gordon's school of political 
thought, recalled him as "the planter, the lawyer, 
the eloquent and charming man, who as the proposer 
of the Sub-Treasury, as a member of the great Con- 
vention of 1829-30, and as the patriot son of Vir- 
ginia, deserves to live freshly ever In memory." 

In person he was well-formed and elegant. His 
height was five feet ten Inches; and he had an erect 



390 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

bearing that conveyed an Impression of lofty dignity. 
His complexion was inclined to swarthiness, and his 
eyes were dark and piercing. His mouth was sym- 
m.etrical, and his smile illuminating and winsome. 
His countenance bore what may be denominated the 
histrionic stamp — that singular and indefinable cast 
of beauty and charm which has characterized so many 
of the great possessors of an imaginative power of 
expression, either of their own ideas or of those of 
others. His dark hair, which grew silvery with old 
age, surmounted in abundance till the end a head of 
nobly classic mould. His voice in conversation was 
sweet and well-modulated; and his manners with 
both men and women possessed a perennial and con- 
stant attraction. His person was one that the 
passer-by in the street would turn to look back at; 
and his voice in oratorical effort, once heard by the 
casual stranger, haunted his recollection with the 
hope of hearing It again. 

But back of all his sweetness and serenity and 
courtesy burned the fires of a just and inflexible self- 
esteem that brooked no Impertinence or Intimation of 
Indignity; and it is strikingly characteristic of the im- 
pression made upon his fellowmen by this blended 
simplicity and sense of personal loftiness, that In all 
the stirring of mighty passions, and In the midst of 
the numerous hostile collisions and personal affrays 
which accompanied the politics of his period, he fig- 
ured In no dlfl[iculty, but moved through them all un- 
touched — admired and respected by friend and foe 
alike. 

As has been said of his great contemporary and 
friend, Mr. Tazewell, he cared nothing for the repu- 
tation which might live after the accomplishment of 
the work which he had in hand to do. He seldom, 
perhaps never, concerned himself to correct his 
speeches for the press. His method of delivery was 
rapid, and was so accompanied with the Demos- 
thenean action of the genuine orator, that though his 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 391 

enunciation was distinct and his voice possessed of 
the carrying quality in an unusual degree, and char- 
acterized by a sonorous sweetness — when he spoke 
the average reporter of the day, charmed with the 
magic of his eloquence and lost in its swift current, 
laid down the pencil in delighted despair. He often 
said laughingly of the reporters that they "seemed 
unable to take him." 

His literary taste and acquirements, and his pecu- 
liar theories of public speaking made him occasionally 
critical of the speeches of other men; and as has also 
been said of Tazewell that "from the eloquent parts 
of such speeches as Webster's in reply to Hayne he 
would turn with dislike," so Gordon did turn, if not 
with dislike, at least with indifference from that very 
eloquence. "I heard Mr. Webster yesterday for a 
little while," he wrote of the Massachusetts orator on 
the occasion of the famous Webster-Hayne debate. 
"He did not reach the Virginia note," 

Quite a characteristic illustration of this spirit of 
candid though not ungenerous criticism is shown in a 
letter written by him from Richmond in January, 
1822, in which, after describing the forensic style and 
personal appearance of Benjamin Watkins Leigh, he 
undertook an analysis of the speech of George 
Tucker, then a member of the United States House 
of Representatives, and later a distinguished pro- 
fessor in the University of Virginia, and author of a 
number of books on various historical, philosophical, 
financial and literary subjects : 

"General Tucker, who is opposed to Mr. Leigh's 
views of the propriety of appointing commissioners to 
meet those of Kentucky on the subject, is to answer 
Mr. Leigh to-day. Indeed, he commenced his speech 
yesterday. I do not know that I can so well describe 
him — not because he is beyond the grasp of delinea- 
tion, but because his manner is more polished, not to 
say artificial, than that of Mr. Leigh; and the promi- 



392 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

nences of his mind, if nature ever formed them, have 
been so smoothed and polished down, that you can 
find no lofty eminence on which to repose, and view 
the beauty of the landscape around you. His exor- 
dium, which was delivered yesterday, was very beau- 
tiful — illustrated by many historical and poetic al- 
lusions, and showing at once the polish of his educa- 
tion and the extent of his acquirements. He quotes 
often from Shakespeare ; but wanting, as I think, the 
true poetic temperament, he quotes merely, without 
the forceful energy with which the poet thought and 
wrote himself. His talent as a logician I cannot por- 
tray, because I have not heard the argumentative part 
of his speech; but I fear I shall find that he has 
wasted too much of his time over the flowers on the 
margin of the river of wisdom, and has neglected to 
fill his urn with its precious waters. He is, however, 
an intelligent and accomplished gentleman; and has 
perhaps more of the rigidity of intellect than I sup- 
pose." 

Enough has been disclosed in these pages of Gor- 
don's political principles and of his methods of politi- 
cal thought to make almost superfluous the further 
statement that he had an unbounded admiration for 
Mr. Calhoun's intellect and personal character, and 
that he regarded his speeches and public papers as 
those of the master-spirit in the political sphere of his 
age; and this, in spite of the fact that, while he con- 
demned the Force Bill and Jackson's proclamation, 
he did not approve of Mr. Calhoun's attitude on 
Nullification. 

If it may be said of him, by those who deride the 
doctrine of State-Rights and State sovereignty, that 
he was "a Southern statesman in a sectional sense," 
the same characterization may with equal justice be 
applied to Jefferson and to George Mason and to 
Randolph of Roanoke, and to all of that mighty 
throng of patriot spirits who believed that the Fed- 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 393 

eral Constitution meant what the English language 
of it purported to mean and express, and no more; 
and that the men who made that instrument devised 
in its unparalleled construction and formation the 
most perfect and perpetual charter of free govern- 
ment that had ever emanated from the mind of man. 
He opposed every encroachment upon the rights of 
the States, because he held with unfailing fervor and 
patriotic passion that the safety of the Union lay 
alone in the safety of the States. 

With a full understanding and appreciation of the 
evils of slavery, he viewed it, as Calhoun and many 
other Southern statesmen viewed it in perfect patriot- 
ism, as an institution whose permanence involved the 
continued prosperity of the South. Yet there is little 
doubt that, though a large slave-owner, he would un- 
hesitatingly have espoused the cause of emancipa- 
tion at any time when he believed it could be accom- 
plished without outside and gratuitous interference, 
and without resultant danger to his own people or to 
the governments which, as he conceived, held and en- 
sured their liberties. 

His indifference to the dictates of personal ambi- 
tion when weighed in the balance with the welfare of 
his country is illustrated in his abandonment of a vic- 
torious party for the sake of an incorruptible prin- 
ciple; and no one can read his speech in proposing 
the Sub-Treasury to Congress in 1835 without the 
profound conviction that patriotism burned always in 
his bosom with a bright and shining flame. 

He served the people of Virginia with an unselfish 
devotion that has been excelled by that of no other of 
her sons; and he adorned that service with an un- 
flinching courage and an invincible integrity, than 
which no man had higher. In the service that he ren- 
dered to his State he rendered an even greater and 
more lasting one to the whole people of a mighty 
and now indissoluble Union, in the formulation of the 
Independent Treasury. 



394 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

It seems no ordinary coincidence that the same 
county in "the Red Hills of Piedmont" should have 
produced Jefferson's mighty charter of human liberty, 
and the statute which the eighth President of the 
United States not inaptly described as "a second 
Declaration of Independence" — Gordon's Sub-Treas- 
ury act, that separated the Federal Government from 
the banks. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following sources and authorities have been 
consulted in the preparation of this work: 

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New York, 1868. 

MS. History of the Gordons of Newry, Ireland, by 
Philip Crossle, esq. 

Records of the County Clerks' Offices of Middle- 
sex, Richmond, Lancaster, Orange and Albemarle 
Counties, Virginia. 

Family Letters and Documents in MS. 

Foote's Sketches of Virginia. First and Second 
Series. Philadelphia, 1850 and 1856. 

Hayden's Virginia Genealogies. Wilkes-Barre, 
Pa. 1891. 

Keith's Ancestry of Benjaffiin Harrison. Phila- 
delphia, 1893. 

Torrence's Rootes of Rosewell. Privately printed, 
N. D. 

Smith's The Governors of Virginia. Washington, 

1893- 

The Journal of Philip Vickers Fithian. Princeton, 

N. J., 1900. 

Page's The Page Family in Virginia. First and 
Second Editions. 

Meade's Old Churches and Families of Virginia. 
2 Vols. Philadelphia, 1889. 

The Diary of a Ycung Lady of Virginia, 1792. 
Baltimore, 1871. 

Slaughter's 5n5?o/ P«m/^ Richmond, 1879. 

Bruce's Social Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth 
Century. Richmond, 1907. 

Journals of the House of Delegates of Virginia, 
18 1 8 to 1830. 

Debates of the Virginia Convention of 1829-18^0. 
Richmond, 1830. 



396 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

The Jefferson MSS. in the Library of Congress. 

The Madison Papers in the Library of Congress. 

Scott's History of Orange County, Virginia. Rich- 
mond, 1908. 

Mead's Historic Homes of the Southwest Moun- 
tains. Philadelphia, 1899. 

Wood's Albemarle County in Virginia. Char- 
lottesville, 1 90 1. 

Howison's History of Virginia. 2 Vols. Phila- 
delphia, 1846. 

The University of Virginia: Correspondence of 
Jefferson and Cabell. Richmond, 1856. 

Randall's Life of Thomas Jefferson. 3 Vols. 
New York, 1858. 

Randolph's Memoir and Correspondence of 
Thomas Jefferson. 4 Vols. Charlottesville, 1829. 

Patton's Jefferson, Cabell and the University of 
Virginia. New York and Washington, 1906. 

Grigsby's Virginia Federal Convention of lySS. 
Reprint of the Virginia Historical Society. 

Grigsby's Virginia Convention of 1776. Rich- 
mond, 1855. 

Grigsby's Virginia Convention of i82g-i8^0. 
Richmond. 

Grigsby's Discourse on Littleton Waller Tazewell. 
Norfolk, i860. 

Howe's Historical Collections of Virginia. 
Charleston, S. C, 1849. 

Garland's Life of John Randolph. 2 Vols. New 
York, 1850. 

Rives's Life and Times of James Madison. 3 
Vols. Boston, 1 859-1 868. 

Slaughter's St. Mark's Parish. Richmond. 

Bouldin's Home Reminiscences of Randolph of 
Roanoke. Richmond, 1878. 

The Richmond Enquirer, and other Virginia news- 
papers. 

Niles's Register. 



WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 397 

Tyler's Cradle of the Republic. Second Ed. 
Richmond, 1906. 

Wirt's Letters of a British Spy. New York, 
1832. 

Kennedy's Life of William Wirt. 2 Vols. New 
York, 1872. 

Codkt^s History of Virginia. Boston, 1883. 

Journals of the United States House of Repre- 
sentatives, 1829 to 1835. Washington, D. C. 

Gales & Seaton's Register of Debates. Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Biographies of Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, John 
Quincy Adams, John Randolph, Van Buren, Gallatin, 
Calhoun, Clay, Webster, Jackson, Benton and Cass, 
in "The Statesmen Series." Boston, 1 899-1906. 

Benton's Thirty Years in the United States Senate. 
2 Vols. New York, 1 8 54- 1 8 60. 

Wise's Seven Decades of the Union. Philadel- 
phia, 1 88 1. 

Wise's Life of Henry A. Wise. New York, 1899. 

Force's National Calendar for 18^2. Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Robertson's Pocahontas and Her Descendants. 
Richmond, 1887. 

Tyler's Letters and Times of the Tylers. 3 Vols. 
Richmond and Williamsburg, 1884-1896. 

The Works of John C. Calhoun. 4 Vols. Charles- 
ton and New York, 1 851-1854. 

Closkey's Political Cyclopedia. Philadelphia, 
i860. 

The Statesman's Manual. 2 Vols. New York, 
1856. 

Messages and Papers of the Presidents. 10 Vols. 
Washington, D. C. 

O'Neall's Bench and Bar of South Carolina. 2 
Vols. Charleston, S. C. 

Johnson's American Politics. New York, 1892. 

Ford's Rise and Growth of American Politics. 
New York, 1898. 



398 WILLIAM FITZHUGH GORDON 

Powell's Nullification and Secession. New York, 
1897. 

Harris's Political Conflict in America. New York. 
1876. 

Moore's The American Congress. New York. 

Lalor's Political Cyclopaedia. 3 Vols. 

The Alumni Bulletin of the University of Vir- 
ginia. Vol. 7. New Series. 

Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 
6 Vols. New York, 1888. 

Gordon's Congressional Currency. New York, 

1895. 

Kinley's The Independent Treasury of the United 
States. New York, 1893. 

Munford's The Two Parsons. Richmond, 1884. 

Reports of the Virginia State Bar Association. 
Richmond. 

White's The Making of South Carolina. New 
York, 1906. 

Thompson's History of the United States. New 
York, 1907. 

Von Hoist's Constitutional History of the United 
States. 

The Democratic Review. New York, 1837. 

The National Intelligencer, 1850. Washington, 
D. C. 

Scott's The Lost Principle," by "Barbarossa." 
Richmond, 1866. 

Journal of the Secession Convention of Virginia, 
1861. Richmond, 1861. 

Thayer's Cases on Constitutional Law. 2 Vols. 
Cambridge, Mass. 1895. 

Brock's Virginia and Virginians. 2 Vols, Rich- 
mond and Toledo, 1888. 

McCarthy's History of Our Own Times. 4 Vols. 
Chicago, 1 88 1. 



INDEX 



Abolition doctrines, Nat Turn- 
ner's insurrection attributed 
to, 316. 

Abolitionists, the original seces- 
sionists, 325. 

Act, establishing University of 
Virginia, 96. 

Adams, John Quincy, 58, 83; 
in the Whig party, 192; Gor- 
don's friendship with, 270; 
sketch of, 271-274; and the 
slaver}' petitions, 321. 

Albemarle County, the bar of, 
51, 366; commonwealth's at- 
torneys of, 53, 83 ; repre- 
sentatives of, 113. 

Alexander, Mark, 156, 200; 
Whig elector, 297, 299. 

"Alliance, The Grand," of 
Newry, 22. 

Algiers, War with, 89. 

Allen, John J., supports the 
Sub-Treasury bill, 277. 

American, Anti-Slavery Society, 
Rev. O. B. Frothingham's 
speech before the, 325. 

American Union, the rise, pro- 
gress and decline of the, 327. 

Ancestry, Gordon's, 18. 

Anderson, William, 160. 

Andrew, Gov. John A., 74. 

"Amis," opposed to the Federal 
Constitution, 42 ; nominate 
Monroe against Madison, 43. 

Archer, William S., 182, 184; 
supports the Sub-Treasury bill, 
277: sketch of, 277. 

Armistead, Elizabeth, wife of 
William Churchill, 29. 

Armistead, Judith, wife of 
"King" Carter, 29. 

Armistead family, the, 31. 

Articles of Confederation, 39. 

Bagenal family, the, 19. 
Bagenal, Nicholas, owner of 
Sheepbridge, 20. 



Baker, William, in the Burr 
trial, 50. 

Baldwin, Briscoe G., 157; 
sketch of, 115; Whig elector, 
299. 

Ball, Ann, 24. 

Bank of the United States, Vir- 
ginia resolutions in regard to, 
127; unconstitutionality of, 
211; Randolph of Roanoke on 
rechartering, 211; resolutions 
of Virginia legislature on, 
212. 

"Banks, Pet," Jackson's, 210. 

Banks, Linn, sketch of, 109-110. 

Bar, Gordon's return to the,363 ; 
of Albemarle County, 366. 

Barbour, James, 38, 156; letter 
of, to Gordon, 53 ; the home 
of, 71 ; originator of the Lit- 
erary Fund, 92 ; advises 
Tyler against resignation, 304. 

Barbour, John S., 51, 54, 156, 
182. 

Barbour, Philip Pendleton, 38, 
74, 155. 156, 182, 397; the 
home of, 71; sketch of, 183- 
184. 

Barbour, Col. Thomas, 38, 53. 

Barnwell, Robert W., 188, 200; 
in the Whig party, 192; 
letter of, to Gordon, on the 
Whigs, 300; sketch of, 302; 
delegate to the Nashville Con- 
vention, 339. 

"Barons of Potowmack and 
Rappahannock," 29. 

Barony of Newry, the, 19. 

Barringer, Daniel L., 188. 

Basis of representation in the 
Convention of 1829-30, 158, 
163. 

Bassetts, the, 31. 

Bayley, Thomas M., 157. 

Beale, James M. H., supports the 
Sub-Treasury bill, 277; sketch 
of, 278-9. 

Beardsley, Samuel, 201. 



Beinne, Andrew, i6o. 

Belvoir, home of Hugh Nel- 
son, 68. 

Belmont, home of Dr. Charles 
Everitt, 68. 

Bell, John, i88, 377. 

Benton, Thomas H., 188, 200; 
on the Sub-Treasury scheme, 
236; debate on the expunging 
resolution of, 210. 

Berkeleys, the, 31. 

Birthday Dinner, the Jeffer- 
son, 192. 

Binney, Horace, 277. 

"Black and Tan Convention, 
the," 47. 

"Bleeding Nun, The," 55. 

Blesheim, home of Andrew 
Stevenson, 71. 

"Blifil and Black George," 260. 

"Blind Preacher, The," 26 ; Gor- 
don's life with, 49. 

Blues, the Richmond, in War of 
1812, 80. 

Botts, Gen. Benjamin, Gordon 
studies law with, 49 ; in the 
Burr trial, 50; burned in the 
Richmond Theatre, 55. 

Bauldin, Thomas T., 279. 

Braddock's defeat, 64. 

Brandon, on James River, 25. 

Breckenridge, Gen. James, 97 ; 
sketch of, 116. 

"British Spy, The," 26. 

Brodnax, William H., 160. 

Brown's Hotel, the Jefferson 
Birthday Dinner at, 193. 

Bruce, Philip A.'s, "Social Life 
in Virginia," 30. 

Buchanan, James, 188, 282. 

Buckner, Alexander, testimony 
of, in the Houston-Stanbery 
case, 853-856. 

Burgh's "Political Disquisi- 
tions," 383. 

Burr, Aaron, trial of, 50. 

Burwells, the, 31. 

Bushy Park, 38, 30. 

Byrd, William, of Westover, 68. 

Byron, Moore's Life of, 375. 

Cabell, Joseph C, State Senator, 
90; rector of the University, 
104; sketch of, 114-H5. 

Cabell, William, the elder, 43. 



Calhoun, John C, 15; in the 
Whig party, 193; and slavery, 
198, 199, 320; eulogy of, on 
Warren R. Davis, 200; 
speech of, on the Force bill, 
206 ; rejoins the Democratic 
party en the Sub-Treasury 
bill, 257 ; votes for the Sub- 
Treasury bill, 258 ; letter of, 
to Gordon, on the presidential 
succession, 297-299 ; resolu- 
tion of, on the slavery peti- 
tions, 322; assails the slavery 
petitions, 324; prophesy of, 
with regard to slavery, 325 ; 
on State-Rights, 326 ; recom- 
mends a Southern convention, 
328. 

Cambreling, Churchill C, 188; 
in the debate on the Sub- 
Treasury, 254. 

Campbell, Jane, 21. 

Campbell, Alexander, 158. 

Campbell, William, 160. 

Camp-life in the War of 
1812, 79. 

Capitol, Convention of 1829-30, 
meets in the State, 158. 

Carpet-baggers in the Conven- 
tion of 1867, 46. 

Carr, Dabney, 13, 51, 55, 73. 

Carr, Dabney, the younger, 

73. 78- 
Carr, Samuel, sketch of, no. 
Carters, the, 31. 
Carter, Camp, in the War of 

1812, 81; Gordon's letters 

from, 83. 
Carter, "King," 29. 
Carter, Robert, the councillor, 

37, 39. 
Carter, Robert W., 34. 
Cathedral of Nismes, model of 

Virginia State Capitol, 158. 
Cary, Archibald, and Patrick 

Henry, 65. 
Castle Hill, home of William 

C. Rives, 65, 66. 
Central College, site of the 

University, 90, 95. 
Chapman, Henley, 160. 
Charlottesville, 71. 
Chase, Hale and Seward vote 

to receive petitions to dissolve 

the Union, 334. 



400 



Cheves, Judge, delegate to the 

Nashville Convention, 339. 
Chestnutt, Colonel, delegate to 
the Nashville Convention, 339. 
Chinn, Joseph W., 279. 
Choate, Rufus, 378. 
Churchill, Lucy, wife of John 

Gordon, 27, 129. 
Churchill, Col. Armistead, 28, 

29, 30. 
Churchill, Priscilla, wife of 
Councillor Carter of Nom- 
ini, 29. 
Churchill, William, the emi- 
grant, 30. 
Churchills, the, 31. 
Cilley and Graves duel, 351. 
Cistercian Abbey at Newry, 

the, 19. 
Claiborne, Nathaniel H., sketch 

of, 277. 
Clark, Lewis and, expedition 

of, 67. 
Clark, George Rogers, birth- 
place of, 72, 73. 
Clay, Clement C, 188. 
Clay, Henry, 83; opposes the Sub- 
Treasury bill, 257; amend- 
ment of, to Calhoun's resolu- 
tion on the slavery petitions, 
322; the voice of, 380; and 
Randolph of Roanoke, 381. 
Claypoole, Mr., delegate to the 

Nashville Convention, 334. 
Cla3'ton, Arthur, 80. 
Clajton, John M., 188. 
Clayton, Mr., of Georgia, in 
the debate on the Sub-Treas- 
ury, 255 ; speech of, on the 
newspapers, 359-362. 
Cobb, John Addison, 56. 
Cobb, Howell 56. 
Cobb, Thomas Read Rootes, 56. 
Cockburn, Admiral, in Chesa- 
peake Bay, 77. 
Cocke, Dr. Charles, sketch of, 

112. 

Cocke, Gen. John H., sketch of, 

81, 83, 85. 
"Cohens Versus Virginia," 128, 

283. 
Coles, Edward, 71. 
Coles, Tucker, 78. 

26 



Compromises on "the basis 
question," 164; of Federal 
Constitutional questions, 327. 
Compromise bill of 1850, of- 
fered by Clay, 328 ; debates 
on, 329. 
Congress, Gordon's election to, 
182; Gordon's colleagues in, 
182. 
Congressmen, manners and cus- 
toms of, 348. 

"Conservative," Democrats op- 
pose the Sub-Treasury bill, 
238. 

Constitution, Wendell Phillips 
on the, 325. 

Constitutional Conventions in 
Virgiiiia, 46, 47. 

Convention of 1829-30, the, 15; 
vote calling, 152; organiza- 
tion of, 154; personnel of, 
155; account of, in Niles's 
Register, 160; dissensions in, 
i68; adjournment of, 181. 

Convention, the Southern, at 
Nashville in 1850, 333. 

Convention of slaveholding States 
recommended by Calhoun, 328. 

Convention, the Virginia, of 
1788, 34. 39- 

Conway, Col. Edwin, 24. 

Conway, Milicent, 24. 

Cooke, John R., 160; compro- 
mise proposition of, on "the 
basis," 164; sketch of, 165. 

Cooke, John Esten, 165. 

Cooke, Philip Pendleton, 165. 

Corwin, Thomas, 278. 

County Down, 18. 

Craney Island, the British at- 
tack on, 77. 

Crawford Democrats, 189. 

Crawford, William H., sketch of, 
196. 

Crockett, David, 188 ; sketch of, 
367, 288 ; anecdotes of, 268- 
270. 

Crosby on Gordon's character 
and career, 389. 

Custis, G. W. P., consents to 
the removal of Mrs. Wash- 
ington's body, 285. 

Customs and manners of Con- 
gressmen, 348. 



401 



Daniel, Henry, 201. 
Davenport, Thomas, 277. 
Davis, Jefferson, 46, 347. 
Davis, Warren R., 188, 278; in 
the Whig party, 192; sketch 
of, 200. 
Debate, on the duelling act, 174; 
on the Deposit bill, 253; on 
the Sub-Treasury, 253. 
Decatur, Commodore, and the 

War with Algiers, 89. 
Delegates, names of the, to the 

Nashville Convention, 346. 
"Democratic Review, The," 

sketch of Benjamin Hardin in, 

278. 
Deposit bill, debate on the, 253. 
Deposits, removal of the, 209 ; 

effect of, 227. 
District of Columbia, petitions to 

abolish slavery in the, 322. 
Doddridge, Philip, 160, 179; 

sketch of, 185; speech on the 

Judicary act, 282. 
Dred Scott Case, 210. 
Dromgoole, George C, 157. 
Duane, William J., 209. 
Duelling, debate on, in the Con- 
vention of 1829-30, 174. 
Duke, R. T. W., 52. 



Edgehill, home of Gov. Thomas 

Mann Randolph, 69. 
Edgeworth, burning of, 58 ; the 

new house at, 63. 
Ellsworth, William H., 201. 
Elgin, the commissary records 

of, 20. 
Emancipation, attitude of Vir- 
ginia towards, 316. 
England, War of 1812 with, 76. 
"Enquirer, The Richmond," 358: 

on Gordon's character and 

career, 386. 
Eppes, Mrs. J. W., Jefferson's 

daughter, 57. 
Everett, Dr. Charles, 68 ; sketch 

of, no. 
Everett, Edward, 188, 278. 
Ewing, Mr., of Ohio, in the 

debate on the Sub-Treasury, 

254- 
"Exchequer Plan," President 

Tyler's, 261. 



Expunging Resolutions, Benton's, 
210; instructions of Virginia 
legislature as to, 304. 

Faulkner, Charles James, a 

Whig elector, 299. 
Federal Constitution, adoption of 

the, 40. 
Federal Hill, home of the 

Rookes family, 56. 
Federal jurisdiction, Virginia 

resolutions on, 128. 
Federalist hostility to Jefferson, 

150. 
Field, Richard H., 52. 
Fithian, Philip Vickars, Diary 

of, 27. 
Fitzhugh, William Henry, 157. 
Fitzhughs, Chatham, the seat of 

the, 44. 
Force's "National Calendar," 

slavery statistics in, 321. 
Force bill, The, 206. 
Foster, Thomas, 201. 
Fox, Charles James, William B. 

Giles compared to, 155. 
Franklin, Benjamin, and aboli- 
tion, 321. 
Francisco, Peter, sketch of, 109. 
Frederickville parish, in Albe- 
marle County, 62. 
"Friendship, The," and John 

Paul Jones, 26. 
Frothingham, Rev. O. B., on the 

Union, 325. 
Frugality extolled in the Vir- 
ginia Constitutions, 332. 
Fry, Joshua, 70; home of, 71. 
Fugitive slave law in the com- 
promise of 1850, 332. 
Fulton, John H., 279. 

Gales, Joseph, editor, sketch of, 

359- 
Gallatin, Albert, 83. 
Garland, James, 289; opposes 

the Sub-Treasury bill, 258. 
Garrison, William Loyd, declares 

for a "Northern Conference," 

325 ; on the Constitution, 325. 
Garnett, Mr., a delegate to the 

Nashville Convention, 339. 
Gaudaloupe Hidalgo, the Treaty 

of, 330. 



402 



"Gerrymander" of Madison's dis- 
trict, 42. 

Germanna, 68 ; home of James 
Gordon of Orange, 35; 
Colonel Byrd's account of, 35; 
the tragedy at, 317. 

General Assembly, Gordon in 
the, 107 ; character of the, 
107 ; training school of states- 
men, 114. 

George, John B., 160. 

Ghent, Treaty of, 83. 

Gholson, James H., 277; sketch 
of, 275 ; delegate to the Nash- 
ville Convention, 334. 

Giddings, Mr., presents petition 
for dissolution of the Union, 
323 ; resolution of, on slavery, 
330. 

Giles, William B., 155; sketch 

of, 137- 

Gilmer, Francis Walker, 73, 
79, 81. 

Gilmer, Dr. George, 65 ; home 
of, 72. 

Gilmer, Thomas Walker, 65, 
71, 82. 

Glasgow, tobacco trade with, 32. 

"Globe, The," 62. 

Goode, William O., 156; dele- 
gate to the Nashville Conven- 
tion, 334, 339. 

Gordon, Alexander, of Salter- 
hill, 21. 

Gordon, Elizabeth, 35. 

Gordon, George, 22. 

Gordon, James, first of Sheep- 
bridge, 19, 21. 

Gordon, Rev. James, of Com- 
ber, 20. 

Gordon, Col. James, of Lancaster, 
21; the emigrant, 23, 24; 
journal of, 24; Whitefield's 
visit to, 24, 34. 

Gordon, Col. James, second, of 
Lancaster, in Conventions of 
1776 and 1788, 46. 

Gordon, James, of Orange, 26, 
34, 35; elected to the Conven- 
tion of 1788, 38, 46; letters of, 
to Madison, 37, 40; political 
views of, 39; described in 
Miss Lee's "Journal," 44; large 
landed proprietor, 45 ; death 
of, 46. 



Gordon, James Waddell, mem- 
ber of the Virginia Conven- 
tion of 1901, 47. 

Gordon, John, of Middlesex, the 
emigrant, 22, 27, 28. 

Gordon, John, of Temple- 
gowran, 23. 

Gordon, Reuben Lindsay, Jr., in 
Convention of 1901, 47. 

Gordon, Samuel, of Sheepbridge, 
22. 

Gordon, Captain William, of 
Sheepbridge, 23. 

Gordon, William Fitzhugh, son 
of James Gordon of Orange, 
26; pupil of James Waddell 
Gordon, 26 ; his name, 45 ; in 
Convention of 1829-30, 40; 
birth of, 48 ; early life, 48 ; 
education, 48, 49; at Spring 
Hill Academy, 49; classical 
acquirements, 49; studies law 
with Gen. Benjamin Botts, 49; 
comes to the bar, 51 ; begins 
practice at Orange, 51; re- 
moves to Charlottesville, 51 ; 
commonwealth's attorney of 
Albemarle, 51 ; elected to 
the General Assembly, — ; 
efforts in behalf of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, 94, 95 ; 
elected to the Convention of 
1829-30, 104; elected to Con- 
gress, 104; in the General 
Assembly, 107 ; legislative 
work, 122, 123 ; letter to Jef- 
ferson, 130, 131; address to 
Lafayette, 144, 145 ; letter to 
Jefferson on his lottery bill, 
150; offers compromise propo- 
sition in Convention of 
1829-30, 164; feature of his 
compromise plan, 169; con- 
vention adopts his compro- 
mise plan of "the mixed basis," 
169; speech on the "basis," 
170; in the Whig party, 192; 
votes in Congress on internal 
improvements, 195; presents 
the Virginia anti-bank resolu- 
tions to Congress, 21 1; speech 
in support of anti-bank resolu- 
tions, 213-225; originates the 
Independent Treasury or 
"Sub-Treasury," 226 ; ac- 



403 



quires soubriquet of "Sub- 
Treasury Gordon," 229 ; 
speech in support of his Sub- 
Treasury bill, 232; reintro- 
duces Sub-Treasury bill, 237; 
speech on reintroduction of 
Sub-Treasury bill, 241-353; 
contemporaries of, in Con- 
gress, 266 ; literary bent, 266 ; 
speeches in Congress on Nulli- 
fication, on the Virginia Reso- 
lutions, on the Bank Deposit 
Bill, and on the Judiciary Act, 
281; speech in Congress on 
the proposal to remove Wash- 
ington's body, 285-287; at 
Mount Vernon, 288 ; letter to 
his constituents, 289-292; 
Tyler's letter to, on the presi- 
dential nomination, 293 ; de- 
feated for Congress, 297 ; 
Calhoun's letter to, on presi- 
dential succession, 297-299; a 
Whig elector, 299; letter of 
R. W. Barnwell to, on the 
Whigs, 300; letter of, to 
Tyler, advising against resig- 
nation from the Senate, 305 ; 
delegate to the Nashville Con- 
vention, 334; chairman of 
Resolutions Committee in 
Nashville Convention, 345 ; 
returns to the bar, 363; dis- 
cusses Shakespeare as a law- 
yer with William Green, 367; 
letters of, to his wife, 373-377, 
375'379j bis love of oratory, 
380; death of, 385; personal 
appearance and characteristics 
of, 390; attitude of, as to 
State-Rights and slavery, 391. 

Gordon, William Fitzhugh, Jr., 
a secretary of the Virginia 
Secession Convention, 46. 

Gordon family, tragedy in the, 
at Germanna, 317. 

Gordons, of Lesmoir, 21 ; of 
Maryvale, 22. 

Gouge, William M., defence of 
the Sub-Treasury act by, 261. 

Governor, office of, in Virginia, 
118. 

Governors of Virginia, during 
Gordon's legislative service, 
118; from 1776 to 1830, 119. 



"Grand Alliance, The," of 

Newry, 22. 
Graves and Cilley, duel between, 

351- 
Grayson, William, 42, 68. 
Great Britain, war with, 76. 
Green, John W., 15b, i6o. 
Green, William, sketch of, 74, 

367. 
Greenway, Sarah, 22. 
Gregg, Colonel, a delegate to 

the Nashville Convention, 334. 
Grigsby, Hugh Blair, 157; on 

the removal of the deposits, 

227. 



Hale, Chase and Seward, vote to 
receive petitions to dissolve the 
Union, 324. 

Hamilton and Madison, 39. 

Hampton, the capture of, 77. 

Harrison, Benjamin, of Berke- 
ley, 24. 

Harrison, Benjamin, the signer, 

Harrison, Hannah, wife of 
Armistead Churchill, 28. 

Harrison, Mary, wife of James 
Gordon of Lancaster, the 
emigrant, 24, 35. 

Harrison, Nathaniel, of Wake- 
field, 24, 25, 29; first Harri- 
son owner of Brandon, 25. 

Harrison, William Henry, 25; 
supported by Northern Whigs, 
300; president of the Indiana 
Territorial Convention, 319. 

Harrison and Tyler, election of, 

304- 
Harrisons, The, of James 

River, 31. 
"Hard Money," The, feature of 

the Sub-Treasury bill, 258. 
Harden, Benjamin, sketch of, 

278. 
Hartford Convention, the, 89 ; 

and the spirit of separation, 

327. 
Harvard, John, 25. 
Hayne, Robert G., 188. 
Hay, George, in the Burr 

trial, 50. 
Helper, Hinton R., author of 

"The Impending Crisis," 153. 



404 



Henry, Patrick, in the Conven- 
tion of 1788, 39, 40, 42; and 
Archibald Gary, 65. 

Hesselius, John, portrait painter, 
27. 

Hopewell, home of Rev. James 
Waddell, 64. 

Houston, Samuel, trial of, by 
Congress, 352; sketch of, 352. 

Independent Treasury, the, ori- 
gin of, 90; devised by Gor- 
don, 226; bill establishing, 
231; Gordon's speech in sup- 
port of his bill for, 232; 
amendment to the Bank De- 
posit Bill, 256; vote on, 256; 
functions and operations of, 
263 ; "A Second Declaration 
of Independence," 263 ; adop- 
tion of, by Van Buren, 303 ; 
destroys the Whig-Republican 
coalition, 303. 

Indiana, memorializes Congress 
to permit slavery, 319. 

Insurrection, Nat Turner's, effect 
of, on the public mind, 315. 

Internal Improvements, Virginia 
resolutions in regard to, 135. 

Iredell, James, 188. 

Irish Rebellion of 1798, Gordons 
in the, 23. 

Jackson, Andrew, at New Or- 
leans, 82, 83 ; inauguration of, 
152; first message of, 188, 
189; personality of, 190; hos- 
tility of State-Rights Demo- 
crats to, 191 ; toast of, at the 
Jefferson Birthday Dinner, 
193 ; attempt to assassinate, 

20I. 

Janney, John, a Whig elector, 
299. 

Jefferson, Peter, 70. 

Jefferson, Thomas, his economy 
of time, 57; a pupil of Mr. 
Maury, 63 ; letter of, to 
Cabell, on the University, 98 ; 
death of, 104; and his phy- 
sician, III; political letter of, 
to Gordon, 132; his lottery 
bill, 149; emancipation of his 
slaves, 151. 



Jefferson Birthday Dinner, the, 
192. 

Jeffrey, George, 67. 

Johnson, Cave, 188; and the 
Houston-Stanbery affair, 352. 

Johnson, Chapman, 156, 158, 
1 60; and the University of 
Virginia, 97; sketch of, 116; 
a Whig elector, 299 ; con- 
demns removal of the de- 
posits, 228, 284. 

Johnson, Richard M., 188, 293; 
nominated for Vice-President, 

297- 
"Johnson's Wife of Louisiana," 

201. 
Johnston, Alexander, 284; ac- 
count of the operation of the 

Sub-Treasury by, 230. 
Jones, John Paul, 27. 
Joynes, Thomas R., 157, 160. 
Journalism of the period, Mr. 

Clayton on the, 357. 
Judiciary Act, Gordon's speech 

on the 25th section of the, 

281-282. 
Judiciary Committee of the 

House, 201. 

Keswick, home of the Pages, 65. 

Kentucky Resolutions, the, ap- 
proved by the Hartford Con- 
vention, 89. 

Kinloch, Eliza, 68. 

Kinloch, residence of Hugh Nel- 
son, 67. 

King, Preston, offers resolution to 
abolish slavery in the District 
of Columbia, 331. 

King, William R., 188. 

"Kitchen Cabinet," Jackson's, 
198. 

Lafayette, visit of, to America, 
140; in Albemarle County, 
141 ; at the University of Vir- 
ginia, 144; visit of, to Rich- 
mond, 147 ; resolutions of 
General Assembly in regard 
to, 148. 

Latimer, Mrs. Elizabeth Worm- 
ely, 29. 

Latin and Greek, Gordon's 
knowledge of, 49. 



405 



Lawrence, attempt of, to assas- 
sinate the President, 201. 

Le Compte, Joseph, resolution of, 
to limit terms of Federal 
judges, 224. 

Lee, Ann, wife of Gen. Henry 
Lee, 45. 

Lee, "Lighthorse Harry," 45. 

Lee, Lucy, "Journal of a Young 
Lady of Virginia," by, 44. 

Lee, General Robert E., 44. 

Lee, Richard Henry, 42. 

Leigh, Benjamin Watkins, 155, 
160, 192, 391 ; compromise 
proposition of, in the Conven- 
tion of 1829-30, 164; sketch of, 
167, 169; election of, to the 
United States Senate, 295; 
condemns the removal of the 
deposits, 228 ; refuses to vote 
for expunging resolutions, 304. 

Leigh, William, 156. 

Letters of Gordon to his wife, 

373-377- 

Lewis, Meriwether, 67 ; birth- 
place of, 73. 

"Liberator, The," declares for a 
Northern confederacy, 325. 

Lindsay, Elizabeth, 56, 57. 

Lindsay, George, 85. 

Lindsay, Maria, 65. 

Lindsay, Col. Reuben, 56. 

Lindsay, William, 80. 

Literary Fund, The, 92. 

Livingston Edward, 188. 

Loan bill, the University, 100. 

Logan, home of Capt. Lewis 
Walker, 64. 

Lord Montgomery's regiment, 20, 

Lottery bill, Jefferson's, 149. 

Loyall, George, 70, 157; and 
the University, loi ; sketch of, 
ii6, 117; on Littleton W. 
Tazewell, 187 ; contest of, with 
Thomas Neaton, 195 ; votes 
against the Sub-Treasury bill, 
299. 

Lucas, Edward, 279. 



Macon, Nathaniel, 156. 

Madison, James, candidate for 
the Convention of 1788, 37; 
letter of James Gordon of 
Orange, to, 37, 40; and Mon- 



roe, in their first canvass for 
Congress, 44; in the Conven- 
tion of 1829-30, 155, 156, 160. 

Mangum, Willie P., vote of, for 
President, 300. 

Mann, Horace, in the debate on 
the Sub-Treasury bill, 255 ; 
favors disunion, 325. 

Marye, John L., a Whig elector, 
299. 

Marshall, Humphrey, duel of, 
with Henry Clay, 348. 

Marshall, Chief Justice, in the 
Burr trial, 50; compromise 
measure on "the basis" pro- 
posed by, 164; sketch of, i66, 
192. 

Martin, Senator Thomas S., 73. 

Mason, George, 13. 

Mason, James Murray, sketch of, 
118; author of the fugitive 
slave law of 1850, 332. 

Mason, John G., 156, 160; 
sketch of, 276. 

Mason, Thompson, 13. 

Massie, Thomas, Jr., 157; sketch 
of, 158. 

Massachusetts, Connecticut and 
Rhode Island nullify act of 
Congress, 77. 

Maupin, Calvin S., 67. 

Maury, Rev. James, 62, 63. 

Maury, Rev. Matthew, 63. 

Maury, Commodore M. F., 63. 

McComas, William, 277. 

McCrea, Mr., in the Burr 
trial, 50. 

"McCulloch Versus Maryland," 
283. 

McDuffie, George, 200, 278 ; 
sketch of, 203. 

McGuifey, Dr. William H., 382. 

Meadows, the, home of Capt. 
James Lindsay, 64. 

Meerbach, F. W., 67. 

Mercer, Charles Fenton, 156, 160, 
279. 

Merchants' Hope, 25. 

Merchants, Scotch, in the to- 
bacco trade, 32. 

Meriwether, David, 67. 

Meriwether, David, the younger, 

Meriwether, Nicholas, 65. 
Meriwether, Dr. Thomas, 20, 68. 



406 



Militia, the Virginia, 86. 

"Military District No. i," 46. 

Missouri compromise, Virginia 
resolutions on the, 125, 126. 

Missouri Compromise act, the, 
127; and slavery, 320. 

"Mixed Basis," Gordon's scheme 
of the, adopted by the Con- 
vention of 1829-30, 169. 

Monroe, James, 155, 156; con- 
test of, with Madison, for Con- 
gress, 43, 44; residence of, 71 ; 
elected President, 90; in the 
Convention of 1829-30, 156. 

Monroe, Joseph J., 51. 

Monticello, 70; Mrs. Gordon 

at, 57-. 

Montpelier, home of James 
Madison, 72. 

Moore, Elizabeth, 68. 

Moore, Samuel McDowell, 279 ; 
in the debate on the Sub- 
Treasury bill, 254. 

Munford, George Wythe, sketch 
of, 107, 108. 

"Mushroom Banks," growth of 
the, 229. 



Nashville Convention, the, called 
by the State of Mississippi, 
328; assembles in 1850, 333; 
resolutions of, 335-339; re- 
assembles, 340; resolutions of, 
on reassembling, 340-344; 
newpaper reports of, 345 ; 
Gordon chairman of Resolu- 
tions Committee in, 345 ; 
names of states represented in, 
346; names of delegates to, 
346; cradle of the Southern 
Confederacy, 347. 

Nashville, Gordon's letters from, 
334, 339- 

"National Intelligencer, The," 

353, 357, 358. 

National Republicans, growth of 
the, 190. 

"Nat's Insurrection," in South- 
ampton County, 309-315. 

Nelson, Hugh, of Belvoir, 68 ; 
sketch of, 113. 

New England threatens to secede, 
76; attempt of, to create a 
Northern confederacy, 326. 



New Orleans, the battle of, 
82, 83. 

Newry, in County Down, Ire- 
land, 18. 

Newton, Mr., delegate to the 

Nashville Convention, 334, 

339- 

Nicholas, Lieutenant, 82. 

Nicholas, Wilson Cary, 71. 

"Niles's Register," i6o; on the 
feeling in the Convention of 
1829-30, i6t, 162; on the 
basis of representation, 169; 
on the Jefferson Birthday Din- 
ner, 193. 

Nismes, the cathedral at, the 
model of the Virginia Capitol, 
158.^ 

Nomini Hall, home of Coun- 
cillor Carter, 27, 29. 

North Carolina and the Fed- 
eral Constitution, 41. 

Northwest Territory, prohibition 
of slavery in the, 319. 

Northern Confederacy, New 
England's attempt to create 
a, 326. 

North and South, the widening 
breach between, 326; division 
of, on slavery in 1850, 331. 

Nullification, by New England 
States, 77 ; and the tariff, 
190; Randolph of Roanoke on, 
211; McDuffie in the South 
Carolina Convention on, 203 ; 
the story of, 204, 205 ; by 
various States of the Union, 
205. 

Nullifiers, The, 204. 



O'Connell, Daniel, speech of, on 
the Hill of Tara, 330. 

Ohio and slavery, 319. 

Oratory, Gordon's love of, 380. 

Ordinance of 1787, prohibiting 
slavery in the Northwest Ter- 
ritory, 319, 

Ordinance of Secession, the Vir- 
ginia, 347. 

"Oregon Trail, The," 67. 

"Osborne Versus Bank of the 
United States," 263. 



407 



Page, Prof. James Morris, 66. 
Page, Mann, 29; and Jefferson, 

383. 
Page, Dr. Mann, 65. 
Page, Thomas Nelson, on "The 

Old Virginia Lawyer," 382. 
Page, Prof. Thomas Walker, 66. 
Pakenham, General, at New 

Orleans, 82. 
Panic of 1816, the, 90. 
"Parsons, The Two," by Mun- 

ford, 107. 
Party feeling, 358. 
Patton, John Mercer, 279; 

sketch of, 280. 
Pen Park, home of Dr. George 

Gilmer, 65. 
Pendleton, Philip C, i6o. 
Petitions, the slavery, in Con- 
gress, 319, 320; from the 

Quakers, 321. 
Peyton, Balic, 278. 
"Piedmont, The Red Hills of," 

64, 75- 

Pickens, Francis W., speech of, 
on the Sub-Treasury bill, 257. 

Pierce, Franklin, votes for the 
Sub-Treasury bill, 257. 

Pillow, Gideon J., in the Nash- 
ville Convention, 344. 

Pinckney, Henry L., and the 
slavery petitions, 322. 

Pleasants, Governor James, 156, 
157, 160; sketch of, 120, 121. 

Pleasants, John Hampden, edi- 
tor of the "Whig," 305, 358. 

"Political Disquisitions," Burgh's, 

383- 

Politics, Jeffersonian, 124. 

Polk, James K., 188; opens the 
debate on the Deposit bill, 
253 ; Sub-Treasury act re- 
stored in administration of, 
259. 

Portraits of James and John 
Gordon, 27. 

Powell, Brook, 25. 

Prentis, Joseph, 157. 

"President," loss of the frig- 
ate, 83. 

Presidential vote in 1835, 300. 

Preston, Gov. James B., sketch 
of, 119. 

"Princeton," explosion on the, 
65, 91. 



Proclamation, Jackson's Nullifi- 
cation, 205. 

Provost, Mr., 59, 66. 

Pryor, Roger A., editor of "The 
South," 389. 

Public school system in Vir- 
ginia, 382. 



Quaker anti-slavery agitation, 

320. 
Quiney, Richard, 25. 
Quiney, Thomas, 25. 



Ragland, James, 79. 

Ragland, Nathaniel, 62. 

Randolph, Edmund, in the Burr 
trial, 50. 

Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 15; 
74, 15s, 160, 192, 200, 278; 
foreman of the Burr grand 
jury, 50; in the Convention 
of 1829-30, 174; speech on the 
anti-duelling act, 176; on the 
Bank bill, 211; on Nullifica- 
tion, 211; denunciation of the 
alliance of Adams and Clay, 
260; comment of, on the Con- 
stitution, 283 ; and slavery in 
the Northwest Territory, 319. 

Randolph Pevton, 13, 55. 

Randolph, Thomas Jefferson, 81 ; 
address of, to Lafayette, 142. 

Randolph, Thomas Mann, 102, 
119; sketch of, 69. 

Randolph, Mrs., 57. 

Randolph, William, of Tucka- 
hoe, 29. 

Randolph, William, of Turkey 
Island, and his descend- 
ants, 69. 

Ravensworth, home of Gen. W. 
H. F. Lee, 45. 

Removal of the deposits, 207 ; 
effect of, 227. 

Resolutions of 1798, the Vir- 
ginia, 72. 

Resolutions of the Nashville 
Convention of 1850, 335-339, 
340-344. 

Representatives in Congress in 
1830, 188. 

Republican-Whig ticket, the, 
299, 300. 



408 



Richmond Blues, The, in the 
War of 1812, 80. 

Richardson, Robert, 25. 

Rivanna river, the, 70. 

River barons of Colonial Vir- 
ginia, 31. 

Rives, William Cabell, 65; 
sketch of, 66; aide to Gen. 
Cocke, 8 1 ; and the University 
of Virginia, 98, 99 ; sketch of, 
112, 113; opposes the Sub- 
Treasury scheme, 238; move- 
ment to elect to Congress, 288 ; 
elected Senator, 288. 

Ritchie, Thomas, sketch of, 358. 

Roane, John, 157, 160. 

Roane, Spencer, articles by, 284. 

Robertson, John, in the debate 
on the Sub-Treasury Bill, 254; 
sketch of, 277, 278. 

Robertson, William, J., 52; 
sketch of, 74. 

Robertson, William Gordon, 
member of the Virginia Con- 
vention of 1 901, 47. 

Rockfish Gap, meeting of the 
University Commissioners at, 
93- 

Rodney, Caesar, in the Burr 
trial, 50. 

Rosegill, Bruce's account of the 
house at, 30. 

Rootes, Mary Robinson, 56. 

Rootes, Sarah Robinson, 56. 

Rootes, Thomas Reade, 56. 

Ross, General, captures Wash- 
ington, 77. 

Rutherford, Mr., 80. 



Scotch in Ulster, the, i8. 

Scotch merchants in Colonial 

Virginia, 32. 
Scott, John, 157. 
Seaton, William W., Sketch of, 

357-. 
Secession, threatened by New 

England, 76. 
Secretary of the Treasury control 

of government deposits by, 229. 
Seminole War, the, 90. 
Senators, United States, in 1830, 

88. 
Sevier, Ambrose H., 274. 



Seward, William H., votes to re- 
ceive petition to dissolve the 
Union, 324. 

Shakespeare, Judith, wife of 
Thomas Quiney, 25. 

Sheepbridge, home of the Gor- 
dons in Ireland, 19. 

Sheepbridge volunteers, the, in 
the rebellion of 1798, 23. 

Shepard, Edward M., on the 
Sub-Treasury, 238. 

Shields, James, 188. 

"Shylock, In re," 367. 

Slaves, Jefferson's, manumitted, 
151. 

Slave-holding States, the, and 
emancipation, 316. 

Slavery, the question of, in the 
Convention of 1829-30, 162; 
on its domestic side, 309; Vir- 
ginia laws in regard to, 315; 
in the Northwest Territory, 
319; petitions to abolish, 319; 
its true history to be written, 
320; and State Rights, 320; 
in the States and Territories 
in 1830; Gordon's letter to his 
son on, 371-372;, Gordon's 
attitude to, 391. 

Smith, Gen. George W., burned 
in the Richmond Theatre, 55. 

Soldier's, English view of Ameri- 
can, 84. 

South, the Newspaper, on Gor- 
don's career, 389. 

South and North, the widening 
breach between, 326, 331. 

Southall, Valentine W., 52, 146. 

Southampton Insurrection, the, 

309- 

Southwest Mountains, the, 71. 

Southern Congress, called by the 
Nashville Convention, 340. 

Southern Confederacy, the Nash- 
ville Convention the Cradle of 
the, 347. 

Speakers of the House of Dele- 
gates, 108. 

Specie Clause, the, of the Sub- 
Treasury Bill, 303. 

Specie payments, the suspension 
of, 85. 

Spotswood, Gov. Alexander, 31, 
45, 68. 



409 



Springfield, home of Col. Reuben 
Lindsay, 62, 64. 

Spring Hill Academy, 49. 

Stanard, Robert, 157. 

"Standard, The Alexandria," 
newspaper, 371. 

Stanbery-Houston aflfair, the, 352. 

State Bank depositories, regula- 
tion of, 229. 

State — rights, construction of the 
Constitution, 14; at the Jef- 
ferson Birthday dinner, 194; 
men in Virginia 308 ; and 
slavery, 320. 

States, Southern, represented in 
the Nashville Convention, 340. 

State Sovereignty, Gov. William 
B. Giles on, 135, 136. 

Stephens, Alexander H., in the 
Slavery Debate of 1849, 330. 

Stevenson, Andrew 71, 182 re- 
elected Speaker, 210; votes 
against the Sub-Treasury Bill, 
279; sketch of, 182, 183. 

Stuart, Archibald, 157. 

Sub-Treasury the, 15; scheme of, 
devised by Gordon, 229 ; gen- 
eral provision of bill to estab- 
lish, 230; operation of, 231; 
frame of Gordon's bill estab- 
lishing, 231; Gordon's speech 
in support of his bill for, 232; 
bill to establish, defeated, 236; 
Benton on, 236; scheme of, 
adopted by Van Buren, 236; 
Von Hoist on, 237; bill for, 
re-introduced by Gordon, 237; 
Gordon's speech on re-intro- 
ducing, 241-253 ; bill estab- 
lishing, passes the House in 

1837, 257; again defeated in 

1838, 258; finally adopted in 
1840, 258; repealed in 1841, 
259; restored in 1856, 259; 
arguments used against, 260; 
defense of, by William M. 
Gouge, 261 ; denounced by 
Whig Ways and Means Com- 
mittee, 262 ; functions and 
operations of, 263 ; specific 
clause of the, bill, 303. 

Summers, Lewis, 157, 160. 
Sumter, General, birthplace of, 
72. 



Taliaferro, John, 160. 

Taney, Roger B., Secretary of 

the Treasury, 209 ; removes 

the deposits, 210. 
Tarpley, Collin S., Calhoun's 

letter to, 333. 
Tariff, the, and Nullification, 

190. 
Tariff laws, Virginia, resolutions 

at the, 129. 
Tariff of 1832, debate on the, 

207, 208. 
Taylor, Col. Frank, diary of, 38. 
Taylor, John, of Carolina, 283. 
Taylor, William P., 277. 
Taylor, Zachary, birthplace of, 

72- 
Taxables in Virginia in 1829-30, 

160. 

Taxation, Federal power of, 
direct, 41. 

Tazewell, Littleton W., 155, 
169, 182, 192; pre-eminence 
of, in debate, 180; sketch of, 
186, 187; speech of, in Nor- 
folk, on the removal of the 
deposits, 228 ; elected gov- 
ernor, 229 ; suggested by 
Tyler as a presidential candi- 
date 293. 

Theatre, the burning of the 
Richmond, 55. 

Thompson, Lucas P., 157; sketch 
of, 158. 

Tobacco trade, the, in Colonial 
Virginia, 31. 

Toombs, Mr., amendment to the 
New Mexico bill offered by, 

331- 
Townes, George, 160. 
Trinity parish, in Albemarle 

County, 62. 
Trist, Nicholas P., birthplace of, 

72; sketch of, 367. 
Troup, Gov. George M., and 

the Creek Indians, 134. 
Tucker, Beverly, delegate to the 

Nashville Convention, 334. 
Tucker, George, sketch of, 391- 

392. 
Tucker, John Randolph, 74, 367. 
Turner, Nat, insurrection headed 

by, in Southampton County, 

309-315- 



410 



Two-thirds Rule in Democratic 
Conventions, origin of the, 

133- 

Tyler, John, 155, 160, 182; 
sketch of, 185, 186; in the 
Whig party, 192; letter of, 
to Gordon, 293 ; suggests 
Tazewell as a Presidential 
candidate, 293 ; nominated by 
Republican-Whig alliance, 

299; consults his friends as 
to resignation from the Senate, 
304 ; resigns from the Sen- 
ate, 308. 

Tyler, Robert, account of at- 
tempt to assassinate President 
Jackson, in letter of John 
Tyler to, 201. 



Ulster, the Scotch in, 18. 

Urbanna, residence of John Gor- 
don, the emigrant, 27, 30. 

United States Bank, Virginia 
resolutions on the, 212. 

University Loan Bill, the, 100. 

University of Virginia, the, 15; 
distinguished homes near the, 
71 ; Jefferson's scheme to es- 
tablish, 90; correspondence of 
Jefferson and Cabell concern- 
ing, 90; bill to establish, 92; 
meeting of the Commissioners 
to locate, 93 ; opposition in 
the House of Delegates to, 95 ; 
act establishing passed, 96; 
appropriation for, 102, 103 ; 
opening of, 103. 

Upshur, Abel P., 155, 192; a 
leader in the Convention of 
1829-30, 161; compromise 
proposition on "the basis" in- 
troduced by, 164; sketch of, 
166. 



Valentine, Dugald, diary of, 32. 

Van Buren calls the Sub-Treas- 
ury Bill "A Second Declara- 
tion of Independence," 263 ; 
chosen by Jackson as his 
presidential successor, 293 ; 
nominated for president, 297. 

Venable, Richard N., 157. 

Virginia Colonial families, 31. 



Virginia Resolutions, affirmed by 
the Hartford Convention, 89. 

Virginia School of politics on 
the 2ist Congress, 188. 

Von Hoist, on the Sub-Treasury 
plan, 237; on Calhoun's atti- 
tude to the Union, 324. 

Votes, Gordon's, in Congress, 
195. 



Waddell, Rev. James, 25. 
Waddell, James Gordon, teacher 

at Spring Hill, 49. 
Waddell, Josephus, member of 

the Virginia Convention of 

1867, 47. 
Wallace, Jane, 21. 
Walker, Betsy, 65. 
Walker, Lucy, 65. 
Walker, John of Belvoir, 68. 
Walker, Gen. Reuben Lindsay, 

65. 
Walker, Dr. Thomas, 64. 
War of 1812, the, 76. 
Warronigh, Camp, troops at, 79, 

80. 
Washington, the capitol at, 

burned by the British, 77. 
Watson, Egbert R., 52. 
Washington, George, proposal 

to remove the oodty of, 284; 

Gordon's speech on, 287. 
Washington, John A., 285. 
Washington, Mrs., 285. 
Watson, Major David, 79, 157. 
Webster, Daniel, 155; 192; 

opposes the Sub-Treasury Bill, 

257 ; vote received by, for 

president, 300. 
Webster-Hayne debate, the, 192; 

Gordon on, 391. 
West Virginia, separation of, 15. 
Whig party, the, origin of, 191. 
Whig Ways and Means Com- 
mittee on the Sub-Treasury 

Bill, 262. 
Whig Coalition with Democrats, 

the destruction of the, 303. 
Whig nomination of Hugh L. 

white for President, 299. 
"Whig, The Richmond," news- 
paper, 358. 
Whigs, Robert W. Barnwell's 

letter to Gordon on the, 300. 



411 



White, Hugh L., i88, nominated 
for President, 299. 

White, Edward D., i88, 201. 

Wickham, John, 156; in the 
Burr trial, 50. 

Wilde, Richard Henry, 188, 278, 
288 ; sketch of, 267. 

Wilderness, the, 36. 

Wilmot Proviso, the, 333; de- 
feated, 347. 

Wilson, Edgar C, 279. 

Wirt, William, 26; in the Burr 
trial, 50; -ime of, 72; at 
Camp Wasb gh in the War 
of 1812, 81. 

Wise, Henry A., 2/7; comment 
of, on the Republican-Whig 
ticket, 300; and John Quincy 
Adams in the Slavery De- 
bates, 323 ; on compromise 
legislation, 328 ; sketch of, 



274-276; in the Graves-Cilley 
duel, 351. 

Woods, Micajah, 52. 

Wormeley family, the, 31. 

Wormeley, Admiral Ralph Ran- 
dolph, 29. 

Wormeley, John, 29. 

Wormeley, Katherine Prescott, 
29. 

Wormeley, Madam Elizabeth, 
30. 

Wormeley, Ralph, of Rosegill, 
29. 

Wright, Silas, votes for the Sub- 
Treasury Bill, 257. 



Yancey, Col. Charles, in the 

War of 1812, 78. 
Young Republicans, the, and 

Mr. Jefferson, 124. 



412 



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